All articles, tagged with “goals”

We are frequently asked how to make a practice routine more habitual.

What about you? Are you ever baffled about how to reach goals without getting thrown off course?

Do you sometimes wonder how you could make each day more meaningful?

Are you seeking ways to effectively install creative activities into daily life?

If these questions interest you, keep reading . . .

Three Powerful Steps to Effortless Achievement

1. Write it down
When you commit any of your intentions to paper, your chances of following through are far greater than if you just think about them and hope to remember them later. By putting plans in writing, you crystallize the details. You also use your creative imagination to further energize the idea.

Write down the things that are important to you and plan ways to include these items in your life. This concept can be a life-changing exercise because you learn how to install the things that matter to you into your daily routine.

2. Visualize your goal and plan backward
You read that correctly! See your goal already attained in your mind’s eye, then write it down on top of a piece of paper. Just below the goal, write down the last step that needs to happen just before you reach the goal. Below that step, write down the second to last thing that needs to happen en route to your goal.

Continue this backward planning process until you reach the step that you will complete just after the moment of planning. This magical exercise clearly illuminates the path to your goal because your creative imagination is fully engaged throughout the process.

Many of us have been taught to plan from where we are to where we want to be. Try this process backward and watch the results come to you with effortless ease!

3. Quiet your mind at least two times daily
We could be talking about meditation, visualization, focus on the breath or any technique that allows you to “press pause.”

If you’ve never taken time out of a busy day to experience stillness, you will be amazed at how taking just a few minutes twice daily can center you, calm you, release stress and create deep peace.

Try this exercise:

a) Close your eyes
b) Visualize yourself in a darkened movie theater
c) Look up at the imaginary blank movie screen and just watch
d) Whenever a distracting thought enters your mind, just gently put your attention back on the blank screen
e) After about two minutes (feel free to use a timer), open your eyes and smile
f) Begin your next activity with a new sense of peace, creativity and clarity

These three steps work for us every day. We hope you find these tips helpful!

Are you looking for ways to sharpen your strategies for a creative project or a new skill? We gave these ten powerful tips to our piano students this year. Give them a try!

1. Establish a consistent practice time each day

• a consistent daily time turns your practice into an automatic success mechanism
• it takes a minimum of 21 days to form a new habit

2. Prepare your mind before you begin

• breathing exercise: inhale slowly for 4 counts, hold breath for 7 and exhale for 8 (repeat this cycle three times)
• close your eyes and visualize putting your distractions on a rolling table that you can push out of the way while you practice
• read something that puts you in a good mood or look at relaxing images (this is why we created “Water Films”)

3. Write out your practice plans and goals in a notebook

• you may also use this notebook as a practice journal to keep track of your progress

4. Do it until you believe it

• with repetition comes confidence and clarity
• by strengthening your belief about the quality of your practice routine and your creative skills, you eliminate excuses (which are talking about or thinking about things you don’t want)

5. Transform distraction into focus

• use your practice time as an exercise to practice being fully in the present
• if you learn the skill of how to focus while distractions are present, you become more consistent (in the case of music, you become a better performer)

6. Prioritize your day

• plan your upcoming day the night before and include creative practice in your plans
• planning your day makes your goals easy to accomplish with minimal effort – the more you do this, the more effective you become

7. Silence the inner critic

• “easy” always wins out over “struggle”
• affirm: “I approve of myself, no matter what anyone else thinks” multiple times every day
• celebrate your victories and focus on your strengths
• overcome insecurity by making an effective practice routine habitual and by fully engaging in each task at hand before moving on to the next task (in practice and in life)

8. Detailed in practice, free and easy in performance

• develop such an effective practice routine that you “trust” your process
• during a performance, job review or evaluation, “there is no evaluating [yourself]. There is no judging. There is no anticipating the result. There is only trust and acceptance.&rdquo
– Bob Rotella, The Golfer’s Mind

9. Enjoy the process more than the product

• “perfection” is both unattainable and stress inducing
• you benefit more by improving your process than simply learning how to get through one creative task (i.e., a single piece of music) in an effort to be “finished”
• accept partial successes and remember that you are on a journey

10. Let go of Fear

• fear is simply your mind giving attention to something that creates anxiety, and you have no guarantee that this object of your focus will come to pass
• talk or think about your life as you want it to be
• focus completely on the task at hand to engage your mind constructively

“The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.”
– Wayne Dyer