Finding the Time

Category: Miscellaneous

Oh my – how time gets away from me. The older I get, the more things I want to do, but the less time I have.  On my list-du-jour:  Go to the gym more often, write in my blog more often, renovate the kitchen, learn french, go to the pottery studio more often, develop an iphone application, learn jazz piano,  and the list goes on. (I know you were wondering where the piano fit into the picture – there it is! )

I find myself saying these words a lot: “Once things settle down with x, I can focus more on y. ” Then another x comes along and ousts y from its position of importance, and y ends up being delayed indefinitely.

So does y ever happen? Sometimes. My kitchen is currently being renovated and I have holes in the wall to prove it.  On the other hand, I haven’t been to the pottery studio or the gym in months, even while paying a membership fee in both places. (That should motivate me to go, right?…)

So, how do I MAKE y happen? How do I find the time to go to the pottery studio, or to learn how to play jazz piano? I’m no expert (obviously), but this is my plan.

1. Decide what is important to me. I have a long list of things I would like to do, and goals I would like to achieve. Realistically, I can’t focus on all of these goals at once. So I have to decide what is important to me and why.

2. Identify the steps to make my goals reality. OK. I know I want to learn to play jazz piano (as well as a few other things). I’ve decided that it’s important to me to keep growing musically. Now what? Well.. where do I start? I have a plethora of resources at my fingertips already. I’ve ordered The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine which seems to be THE book to start learning jazz chords and theory. I’ve also ordered several other jazz chord and technical books. I’ll include reviews once I’ve received them and become familiar with them.

3. SCHEDULE TIME. I need to make this goal a priority and decide WHEN I’m going to work on it. I’m not going to wait until after my kitchen renovations are finished. I’m not going to wait until the conditions are perfect. I’m not even going to wait until my books come in the mail (although I’m really looking forward to them arriving.)

Planning and scheduling time is probably one of the most important steps in the process of achieving a goal. Well, that and following through with the plan…

** Disclaimer: I’ve been reading motivation and self-improvement books lately, and I’m afraid it has leaked into this blog. This is not a self-improvement blog…. or is it? *cue creepy music*..  As an aside, publishing your goals (by telling people about them), helps keep you accountable thereby increasing your chances of success. By writing this blog post, I’m publishing my goals to my readers.. all one of them (Hi Glenn!)… hopefully this will keep me accountable and help me succeed!

Creative Commons License photo credit: Βethan

Random Post about Motivation

Category: Practice and Performance

photo credit: Mikey G Ottawa

Sometimes I wish I could achieve things by thinking about them really really hard. I’ve tried, and it doesn’t work. No matter what the books tell you. It often takes hard work and dedication to achieve things that are important to you. Whether that be playing the piano, running a marathon, or losing those last 10 pounds. Nothing is easy. There are a lot of factors that will contribute to your ultimate success or failure. The biggest one? Motivation! Oh, it is such a fickle thing – here one day and gone the next. I haven’t yet mastered the art of keeping motivation. If I did, I would probably be at the gym right now, and I would post on this blog a hell of a lot more. I might also be a virtuoso pianist, entrepreneur, marathoner, and accomplished artist. But back to real life. Motivation. Yes.

Well, since motivation will have a huge impact on how often you practice the piano, and how dedicated you are to your lessons, you should find a way to keep your motivation high. My favorite method is to set a goal date where you will play in public (in church, at a retirement home, in front of friends, at a recital, etc). That way you are publicly committed to keeping up your practice. What motivates you to practice? How do you keep yourself going when you don’t feel like practicing?