3 Simple Tips: How to keep your motivation when practicing
Maybe you’re dreaming about moving your music to new heights, to make playing music feel more like a natural part of your life, to be a natural part of you. Find out how with Tiny Habits
Tiny Habits can help you to crack the code and get you closer to music in your everyday life. Want to know more? Read on!
Tiny Habits – what is it?
The Tiny Habits method was invented by BJ Fogg, a researcher at Stanford University. Tiny Habits is about achieving development by making small behavioural changes in everyday life so it will be easy, manageable, and motivating.
Changing behaviour can feel like a big deal, and often we pressure ourselves into unrealistic expectations. This ‘go big or go home’ mentality is a recipe for self-doubt and disappointment, but we can avoid this by practising Tiny Habits – by doing what you want to become better at little by little.
It's easier and faster to create a habit than you might think
1. Decide on a new habit you want to create and make it very tiny
If you want to read more books, reading just one sentence per day is progress and a step towards reaching your goal. So begin there. The smaller the habit, the easier it is to implement into your daily life, so it starts to flourish.
2. Find a time when the habit can fit into your existing routine
Ask yourself: What could this new habit come after? Choose something you do already. Then you don’t have to reinvent your everyday life but only add a tiny habit where it suits. To say I want to read more can feel too abstract, but instead, you can think about your aim the following way:
After I _____ (insert existing habit), I want to _____ (insert new tiny habit)
For example: After I go to bed, I want to read one sentence from my book.
3. Pat yourself on the back!
After you have completed the new tiny habit and used your existing routine to remind you, you must celebrate that you did it! It helps you to get the feeling of success.
Habits are not created only by repetition. When you do something new and it feels successful, it registers in the brain as a positive experience. The brain will search for this positive experience again, and over time the habit will become more automatic and easier to maintain.
Tiny Habits in Music
If you use some focused minutes many times a week, the method can help you to move musical mountains.
If you want to become better at practising your guitar, an example of a tiny habit could be: After I get home from work, I will hold my guitar.
Perhaps it can seem a foolish to sit with the guitar in your hands at first, but there is meaning in the madness. The days when you don’t feel like playing, this simple task is easily achieved and requires little effort. The purpose is to make it a habit to grab the guitar and get a successful experience.
If you succeed in it becoming a habit picking up the guitar when you get home from work, you can pat yourself on your back for that. Later on, you can create a new habit. For example: After I return from work, I will play my guitar for 2 minutes.
Now you probably realise where this is going. It’s about finding a road towards the goal you want to achieve by taking one step at a time. Before you know it, you will have moved much further than you thought. There's only one person to thank for this, and that's you!
Promising yourself to play for 2 minutes daily after making coffee does not require much of you. It is far more manageable than playing for an hour. And often 2 minutes becomes 15 minutes. Most important is to be consistent and not push yourself too hard.
Read also: Are you ready to progress faster in your music lessons?
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