Core: Regardless of how hard you work towards your musical goals, you will not reach your full potential if your Core system (your body and mind) are not running at 100% peak efficiency. These systems are Sleep, Nutrition and Exercise.
Planning: Know what you want to achieve and set a plan in motion to achieve it. You can’t hit a target if you don’t know where or what it is. Set goals and of different levels. Have goals that you are accomplishing every few weeks and long term goals that are the result of achieving the smaller ones. Goals are building blocks. You start off with one and build your way up in to something that is big and strong. Sky is the limit. The best athletes in the world all have state of the art training programs. This is where a great teacher/coach can help you meet and exceed your goals. By putting together a really great practice routine and having obtainable short term goals you will be on the path to success.
Execute: The best practice or workout routine will fail without putting forth the necessary effort. Work Ethic is the most effective ingredient in achieving success. You can be naturally gifted and possess all the skill sets necessary but with out serious work your results will be mediocre. The opposite also holds true, you can can have average to above average talent and insane work ethic and become a champion. Obviously being gifted and having insane work ethic will yield the best results. As a musician by trade I know the music and the arts is not a competition but I have a saying that I live by in every area of my life “Somewhere out there someone is practicing and when you meet them in head to head competition they will win. Also remember to enjoy what you do.
Review: The best musicians are constantly revising their practice routines. Take inventory of your strengths and weakness’s. Work on your weakness’s first when you practice. This is a bulletproof method to never plateauing and always moving forward.
Repeat: As you are making good gains with your practicing and goal setting, keep revising and fine tuning your routine.
Creativity: When are you most creative? Try to monitor when you are most creative during your day, and use this time to develop your new ideas. Try to make a routine out of this. Be sure to document your ideas by writing them down and or recording them. Most smart phones have a memo recording feature that will allow you to capture your ideas. A great photographer always has a camera on hand, with fresh batteries and the lens cap off ready to capture the moment. Do the same with all your musical ideas. Don’t dismiss the simple ideas, sometimes they will become your most popular and biggest hits.
Failure: Failure tends to have negative connotations. From every mistake made there are valuable learning experiences. There is no way around this. Some times we can be messy human beings and mistakes are part of being human, it’s simply life. Just remember that the same ground you fall down on is there to help you get back up.
Be Positive: Try your best to stay positive. We all have our ups and downs but the goals is to have more ups than downs. I like Steve Wozniak’s equation to happiness “H=S-F (Happiness equals smiles minus frowns).” Hang around people who are like-minded and positive. Negative people will just suck the energy and creativity right out of you
Success: Success is simply being able to live your life surviving doing what you love! Most of us are familiar with the theme from the motion picture Field of Dreams “If you build it they will come” I have my own variation of that saying “If you love what you do they will come”. If you truly love what you do people from all over the world will seek you out for that thing that you pour your love into.