Take A Beat
DO THIS EXPERIMENT: TAKE A BEAT AND CONSIDER CHANGING WORDS & LABELS
Search out places where you may have labelled something or someone that may no longer belong under that label. The first part of the year is a great time to reevaluate and update the people, processes, and past results in your business and in your personal life, so they are more in line with who you are today and where you plan to be by year’s end.
Thank you to the handful of singers who reached out to me after taking our suggestions to heart and getting their New Year off to the best possible start. So, let’s take that next step within the first AR Cornerstone.* To do that, I’m going to reach back into a blog post from a decade ago.
This is what Carol said: "We all want to start a new year as well as we can, right? So where do you start?"
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be the best you can be. But remember, there’s not “a” way for any of us to do anything perfectly. That includes performing your best, whether on stage, at home, or out in public. Your idea of "perfect" will be different from mine, etc.
Your pursuit of perfection can often create roadblocks when working on vocal technique and applying it to a piece of music. It often creates a fear of failure.
Here is what I suggest you replace the word Perfection with. Or for any word that gives you negative thoughts.
Changing one simple word can make the difference between success and something less. The same is true for labels: once we label something, be it a word, event, person, or a result, it sticks! That word or thing will forever be categorized by that label. Unless or until you consciously change it.
When those particular words raise their ugly head, tell yourself to “TAKE A BEAT”. That means stop everything you are doing, including thinking.
Let all that negative stuff just fall away. Then decide what you are going to do and how you are going to do it, whether it’s vocal technique or working on languages in a piece. Or it could be understanding the context of a particular part of the music that helps you advance the story.
Perfection can also come into play when you are “trying” to create a plan of action or take any action in your business. All this does is keep you stuck in the past. When you are in the past, you don’t take into account whether this idea works for you or not. Take a Beat. Then, if it doesn’t feel right, move on until you find the context that makes sense to you.
When we “try” to be perfect, we tend to get stuck looking back at what we didn’t accomplish, and we often try to change it while we are doing it. We analyze and compare it to what someone else has done, often in a near-panic, without considering how to leave it behind and move only ourselves forward.
Don’t allow yourself to get stuck in the past, even if it was 2 minutes ago. “TAKE A BEAT”, decide what you want to do, and how you want to do it. And then do it without analyzing as you are doing it. You can observe, but don’t try to correct it in that moment.
For example, when you are working on a new piece of music, and you’re done with a phrase, you can look, hear, and feel what you observed in that moment, make adjustments, and then repeat this easy process all over again. STOP - TAKE A BEAT - DO (as you mentally step back and observe) – STOP- ANALYZE – RESET – TAKE A BEAT - DO!
Whatever process or mindset has brought you to where you are today can also be what prevents further improvement if some aspect of it carries a negative context or label. To improve is to change. Do the experiment, take the small risk of potential discomfort from doing something new, and then evaluate it afterward. There’s no harm from that, but the benefits can be life-changing. Dare yourself to stop, “Take A Beat,” and make a change that makes a difference!
Happy February
Until next time,
Avanti and Ciao,
David
*The Four Cornerstones of the Aria Ready Process are:
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