I don’t know about you, but in the past when trying to achieve goals, I tried doing this…
Using positive thinking.
Did it work?
Not really.
It’s hard to say for sure.
What did work better for me though was something Professor Richard Wiseman, a brilliant psychologist, calls “Double Think”.
This combined with other exercises where we focus as much on the negatives as the positives also really helped.
Now I’ve put a little four-step routine together to help you set some great guitar goals.
It basically works like this:
You think about your guitar goals, but instead of focusing on the positives, you also think about the potential things that may well hold you back as well as any negative feelings…
Let’s begin…
Step #1 – What is your big goal?
This is pretty simple and mandatory in any goal-setting situation.
Let’s say you’re new to the guitar or you’ve struggled for years…
And for you, your first big goal is to play 5 songs from start to finish (a very good goal to have by the way).
Here you might say:
“I want to be able to play five songs from start to finish.”
Step #2 – What things may hold you back?
Thinking about what may hold you back is powerful.
This will give you a sense of realism, help you to plan better, and help you not be too unmotivated when things get in the way.
For example, you might write:
“The things that may hold me back could be a lack of focus, bad song choices, overwhelming myself by trying to learn too many songs, and not giving myself enough time to learn these songs.”
Step #3 – Thinking negatively
Now, let’s think about the negatives if you don’t achieve this goal.
You could say:
“If I don’t achieve this goal, I will probably end up being a very frustrated guitarist who never really got to experience the joys of this instrument, and my life will be less rich for it.”
Or you might say:
“I’ve had dreams of playing guitar for myself for years, and even dreamt about playing in front of my wife/husband/family/friends. If I don’t achieve my goal, that will make me less happy than if I do.”
Okay, finally let’s think about the positives…
Step #4 – What are the positives?
Here we talk about the positives of what it will be like to achieve the goal.
This is highly motivating especially if you really picture it in your mind’s eye.
You might say:
“When I do achieve my goal, I will be happier, be able to play real music, impress myself and my loved ones by playing music for them, be confident enough to jam with others, maybe improve my brain health, and have more joy and happiness in my life. Everything in my life will be better for being a musician!”
There you go.
That’s a little four-step plan that can help.
It uses some powerful concepts that can help you and best of all, thinking about this and writing it down takes just minutes.
Most people never set goals, and most people never spend a few moments really thinking about what they want and how it will truly and positively affect their life.
Anyway, it won’t make you play like Hendrix or Clapton overnight of course, but a plan like this can help give you a big step in the right direction.
…And if Travis picking, singing, fingerpicking, and strumming a classic song is something you want to do, check this out…
It’s my Tom Dooley Mini-Masterclass…
Listen to a snippet of this and learn to play a stunning song today
Have a fun day!
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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