THE PRACTICE DILEMMA
The word practice is often an intimidating word. When students hear this, they immediately think of it as a chore. Others are intimidated by practicing because they never know what to practice. Yet, others don’t practice because they never seem to have the time. These are barriers that prevent students from reaching their fullest potential. While talent exists, mere talent is not sufficient to advance. This music talent must be nurtured with hard work, personal development, practice, and single-minded concentration. These are the ingredients that will transform a musician’s skill level and ability. Practicing should always be looked at as a means of advancement. It is a process where happiness and motivation come as a result of seeing where you were, to where you are, to where you will be. In this resource, we will discuss the different kinds of practices you can do. While it is difficult to find time to get behind your instrument daily, these principles will help you get more done in less time. They will increase your efficiency, effectiveness, and level of time of progression.
​
Mental Practice
Mental practice means to know what you are going to practice before you practice. It is having a specific plan before sitting behind your instrument. For instance, if you want to progress with Latin music, immerse yourself in listening and reading Latin music and instructional books. Have in mind exactly what you want to work on before working on it. This will give you specific goals to accomplish and prevent you from playing aimlessly on your instrument only regurgitating what you know. Mental practice requires preparation. You must have a decisive and specific plan of what to work on and how you will progress before sitting down on your instrument. This can entail writing down specific concepts you want to learn, or studying an instructional video and having clear and specific concepts to work on. Mental practice will help you single-mindedly concentrate on one area of your instrument where you will become a master at it. As alluded to above, too many musicians play their instruments casually without having any clear goals on what to accomplish. If you consider yourself a casual musician playing an instrument to release stress, then this doesn’t apply to you. However, if you are a serious learner and want to advance, mental practice will help get you there.
Visualize Practice
Visualize practice means to visualize how you want to look, feel, sound, and play your instrument. It is having a clear picture of yourself playing your instrument. Visualizing can also involve mentally seeing yourself playing something before playing it. For example, if you always wanted to learn crossovers on the drum set, you can picture yourself doing crossovers and how it would look before applying it. Or, if you have always been drawn to showmanship, you can envision yourself doing a stick twirl before physically trying it with the stick. Visual practicing also helps immensely when watching instructional videos and live performances. I have been blessed to have a photo-graphic memory. So much of my learning and progress have come from remembering something I watched on an instructional DVD or online video. Although it is difficult to retain every single aspect taught in that video, there are some drum licks that I immediately programmed into my subconscious mind and was able to execute them on the drum set. Visualizing what someone is doing and how they are doing it are paramount to practice. Lastly, visualizing yourself can help you perform successfully. Many athletes have used this method of seeing themselves perform well before playing. Whether you are performing live, in the studio, in a recital, or in a competition, envision yourself performing well, and this can ultimately help transcend how you play.
​
Singing Practice
In 1926, notable jazz singer, Louis Armstrong sang, “Heebie Jeebies”, which became a national bestseller. While singing the song, he didn’t know all the lyrics and invented a gibberish melody to fill time. This was the inception of scat singing, which means the voice was used in imitation of an instrument. Later, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, and Al Jarreau were key influences of scat singing. Just like scat singing mimicked the sound of an instrument, you can also sing rhythms you want to play. When you can say it, it makes it much easier to play it. There have been many times in my playing where I struggled to play something I created. However, when I sang the phrase out loud, it helped me physically transfer this to the drum set. Singing a rhythm can give you clarity on how to articulate an idea on your instrument. We have the ability to make a variety of sounds with our voices and can use this to our advantage when playing our instrument.
Note Taking Practice
With the vast information technology era we live in, it can get very overwhelming focusing single-mindedly on one concept. Just type in “music lessons”, and you will come across millions and millions of hits! After a long day of work and family obligations, it can be difficult finding time with getting behind your instrument. A good antidote to this is studying an instructional book, DVD, or online class series. For instance, I have made it a goal to methodically work through all my drum DVDs. I have sticks, a pad, and notebook available. I take careful notes on what I am learning and frequently pause the DVD to mimic what I am learning on the drum pad. There are times I can only do this 20 minutes a week and other times a few hours a week. Regardless of the duration, there is always incremental progress. I have now gone through numerous DVDs (and still have many to explore). This “note taking practice” has greatly enhanced my playing level, and it has given me many new teaching insights. When I am able to get behind my drum set, I will review what I learned in my notes, and thus, have brand new material to practice. Note taking practice is a great tool to use when single-mindedly beginning and completing concepts on your instruments. It avoids the common mistake students make, which is jumping all over the place and not knowing what to practice due to excessive amount of information available.
Inspirational Practice
We have all seen amazing acts of talent. Whether on a television show or YouTube, there have been amazing displays of God-given talents from people of all ages. I have seen videos of 14 and 15 year old drummers playing in worship bands at their church who have captivated and inspired me. Inspiration is what fuels desire, motivation, and innovation. We all fall into ruts when playing our instruments, but it is inspiration that propels us out of these times of stagnation. It is important to have various influences at your instrument. Listening, reading, researching, and watching your influences will inspire you to grow and try new things on your instrument. Not only does inspiration serve as a platform to learn new concepts, but it also is a means of daring to move forward. It provides a way to explore the unknown on your instrument, exploring new ideas that may have never been explored. As a musician and full-time business owner, my time is very limited, so I make every effort to make the most of my practice sessions through careful planning and preparation. Sometimes this isn’t enough to help me reach my fullest potential when I practice, so I either listen to the music of my favorite artists on my smartphone Pandora stations or listen to CDs of instructional music books I have while I am driving. This puts me in the mode of practice and provides great inspiration to develop new ideas. Conversely, if I am doing something completely unrelated to drumming and then just transition into practicing, I am much less prone to feeling inspired to generate new ideas. In John C. Maxwell’s book, Becoming a Person of Influence, he states: “When you consistently listen to others, you never suffer for ideas. If you give people opportunities to share their thoughts, and you listen with an open mind, there will always be a flow of new ideas.” Just like listening to others generates ideas you would never think of on your own, listening to your influences will provide new possibilities on your instrument!
In Brian Tracy’s book, Maximum Achievement, he states that: “Whatever thought or action you repeat often enough becomes a new habit.” He goes on to say: “The main reason for so much underachievement and frustration is simply that people do not know how to get the most out of themselves. They don’t know how to apply themselves for maximum performance and happiness.” In other words, hard work, repetition, commitment, planning, and discipline are the means of advancing on your instrument. While it can be difficult spending hours on your instrument every day, these practice principles, if rightly applied, will stir your creativity just like stirring cream begins to permeate in a cup of coffee. Further, putting these principles into practice a little bit every single day will enhance your playing and infuse motivation to keep practicing!
THE PRACTICE DILEMMA
The word practice is often an intimidating word. When students hear this, they immediately think of it as a chore. Others are intimidated by practicing because they never know what to practice. Yet, others don’t practice because they never seem to have the time. These are barriers that prevent students from reaching their fullest potential. While talent exists, mere talent is not sufficient to advance. This music talent must be nurtured with hard work, personal development, practice, and single-minded concentration. These are the ingredients that will transform a musician’s skill level and ability. Practicing should always be looked at as a means of advancement. It is a process where happiness and motivation come as a result of seeing where you were, to where you are, to where you will be. In this resource, we will discuss the different kinds of practices you can do. While it is difficult to find time to get behind your instrument daily, these principles will help you get more done in less time. They will increase your efficiency, effectiveness, and level of time of progression.
​
Mental Practice
Mental practice means to know what you are going to practice before you practice. It is having a specific plan before sitting behind your instrument. For instance, if you want to progress with Latin music, immerse yourself in listening and reading Latin music and instructional books. Have in mind exactly what you want to work on before working on it. This will give you specific goals to accomplish and prevent you from playing aimlessly on your instrument only regurgitating what you know. Mental practice requires preparation. You must have a decisive and specific plan of what to work on and how you will progress before sitting down on your instrument. This can entail writing down specific concepts you want to learn, or studying an instructional video and having clear and specific concepts to work on. Mental practice will help you single-mindedly concentrate on one area of your instrument where you will become a master at it. As alluded to above, too many musicians play their instruments casually without having any clear goals on what to accomplish. If you consider yourself a casual musician playing an instrument to release stress, then this doesn’t apply to you. However, if you are a serious learner and want to advance, mental practice will help get you there.
Visualize Practice
Visualize practice means to visualize how you want to look, feel, sound, and play your instrument. It is having a clear picture of yourself playing your instrument. Visualizing can also involve mentally seeing yourself playing something before playing it. For example, if you always wanted to learn crossovers on the drum set, you can picture yourself doing crossovers and how it would look before applying it. Or, if you have always been drawn to showmanship, you can envision yourself doing a stick twirl before physically trying it with the stick. Visual practicing also helps immensely when watching instructional videos and live performances. I have been blessed to have a photo-graphic memory. So much of my learning and progress have come from remembering something I watched on an instructional DVD or online video. Although it is difficult to retain every single aspect taught in that video, there are some drum licks that I immediately programmed into my subconscious mind and was able to execute them on the drum set. Visualizing what someone is doing and how they are doing it are paramount to practice. Lastly, visualizing yourself can help you perform successfully. Many athletes have used this method of seeing themselves perform well before playing. Whether you are performing live, in the studio, in a recital, or in a competition, envision yourself performing well, and this can ultimately help transcend how you play.
​
Singing Practice
In 1926, notable jazz singer, Louis Armstrong sang, “Heebie Jeebies”, which became a national bestseller. While singing the song, he didn’t know all the lyrics and invented a gibberish melody to fill time. This was the inception of scat singing, which means the voice was used in imitation of an instrument. Later, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, and Al Jarreau were key influences of scat singing. Just like scat singing mimicked the sound of an instrument, you can also sing rhythms you want to play. When you can say it, it makes it much easier to play it. There have been many times in my playing where I struggled to play something I created. However, when I sang the phrase out loud, it helped me physically transfer this to the drum set. Singing a rhythm can give you clarity on how to articulate an idea on your instrument. We have the ability to make a variety of sounds with our voices and can use this to our advantage when playing our instrument.
Note Taking Practice
With the vast information technology era we live in, it can get very overwhelming focusing single-mindedly on one concept. Just type in “music lessons”, and you will come across millions and millions of hits! After a long day of work and family obligations, it can be difficult finding time with getting behind your instrument. A good antidote to this is studying an instructional book, DVD, or online class series. For instance, I have made it a goal to methodically work through all my drum DVDs. I have sticks, a pad, and notebook available. I take careful notes on what I am learning and frequently pause the DVD to mimic what I am learning on the drum pad. There are times I can only do this 20 minutes a week and other times a few hours a week. Regardless of the duration, there is always incremental progress. I have now gone through numerous DVDs (and still have many to explore). This “note taking practice” has greatly enhanced my playing level, and it has given me many new teaching insights. When I am able to get behind my drum set, I will review what I learned in my notes, and thus, have brand new material to practice. Note taking practice is a great tool to use when single-mindedly beginning and completing concepts on your instruments. It avoids the common mistake students make, which is jumping all over the place and not knowing what to practice due to excessive amount of information available.
Inspirational Practice
We have all seen amazing acts of talent. Whether on a television show or YouTube, there have been amazing displays of God-given talents from people of all ages. I have seen videos of 14 and 15 year old drummers playing in worship bands at their church who have captivated and inspired me. Inspiration is what fuels desire, motivation, and innovation. We all fall into ruts when playing our instruments, but it is inspiration that propels us out of these times of stagnation. It is important to have various influences at your instrument. Listening, reading, researching, and watching your influences will inspire you to grow and try new things on your instrument. Not only does inspiration serve as a platform to learn new concepts, but it also is a means of daring to move forward. It provides a way to explore the unknown on your instrument, exploring new ideas that may have never been explored. As a musician and full-time business owner, my time is very limited, so I make every effort to make the most of my practice sessions through careful planning and preparation. Sometimes this isn’t enough to help me reach my fullest potential when I practice, so I either listen to the music of my favorite artists on my smartphone Pandora stations or listen to CDs of instructional music books I have while I am driving. This puts me in the mode of practice and provides great inspiration to develop new ideas. Conversely, if I am doing something completely unrelated to drumming and then just transition into practicing, I am much less prone to feeling inspired to generate new ideas. In John C. Maxwell’s book, Becoming a Person of Influence, he states: “When you consistently listen to others, you never suffer for ideas. If you give people opportunities to share their thoughts, and you listen with an open mind, there will always be a flow of new ideas.” Just like listening to others generates ideas you would never think of on your own, listening to your influences will provide new possibilities on your instrument!
In Brian Tracy’s book, Maximum Achievement, he states that: “Whatever thought or action you repeat often enough becomes a new habit.” He goes on to say: “The main reason for so much underachievement and frustration is simply that people do not know how to get the most out of themselves. They don’t know how to apply themselves for maximum performance and happiness.” In other words, hard work, repetition, commitment, planning, and discipline are the means of advancing on your instrument. While it can be difficult spending hours on your instrument every day, these practice principles, if rightly applied, will stir your creativity just like stirring cream begins to permeate in a cup of coffee. Further, putting these principles into practice a little bit every single day will enhance your playing and infuse motivation to keep practicing!
THE PRACTICE DILEMMA
The word practice is often an intimidating word. When students hear this, they immediately think of it as a chore. Others are intimidated by practicing because they never know what to practice. Yet, others don’t practice because they never seem to have the time. These are barriers that prevent students from reaching their fullest potential. While talent exists, mere talent is not sufficient to advance. This music talent must be nurtured with hard work, personal development, practice, and single-minded concentration. These are the ingredients that will transform a musician’s skill level and ability. Practicing should always be looked at as a means of advancement. It is a process where happiness and motivation come as a result of seeing where you were, to where you are, to where you will be. In this resource, we will discuss the different kinds of practices you can do. While it is difficult to find time to get behind your instrument daily, these principles will help you get more done in less time. They will increase your efficiency, effectiveness, and level of time of progression.
​
Mental Practice
Mental practice means to know what you are going to practice before you practice. It is having a specific plan before sitting behind your instrument. For instance, if you want to progress with Latin music, immerse yourself in listening and reading Latin music and instructional books. Have in mind exactly what you want to work on before working on it. This will give you specific goals to accomplish and prevent you from playing aimlessly on your instrument only regurgitating what you know. Mental practice requires preparation. You must have a decisive and specific plan of what to work on and how you will progress before sitting down on your instrument. This can entail writing down specific concepts you want to learn, or studying an instructional video and having clear and specific concepts to work on. Mental practice will help you single-mindedly concentrate on one area of your instrument where you will become a master at it. As alluded to above, too many musicians play their instruments casually without having any clear goals on what to accomplish. If you consider yourself a casual musician playing an instrument to release stress, then this doesn’t apply to you. However, if you are a serious learner and want to advance, mental practice will help get you there.
Visualize Practice
Visualize practice means to visualize how you want to look, feel, sound, and play your instrument. It is having a clear picture of yourself playing your instrument. Visualizing can also involve mentally seeing yourself playing something before playing it. For example, if you always wanted to learn crossovers on the drum set, you can picture yourself doing crossovers and how it would look before applying it. Or, if you have always been drawn to showmanship, you can envision yourself doing a stick twirl before physically trying it with the stick. Visual practicing also helps immensely when watching instructional videos and live performances. I have been blessed to have a photo-graphic memory. So much of my learning and progress have come from remembering something I watched on an instructional DVD or online video. Although it is difficult to retain every single aspect taught in that video, there are some drum licks that I immediately programmed into my subconscious mind and was able to execute them on the drum set. Visualizing what someone is doing and how they are doing it are paramount to practice. Lastly, visualizing yourself can help you perform successfully. Many athletes have used this method of seeing themselves perform well before playing. Whether you are performing live, in the studio, in a recital, or in a competition, envision yourself performing well, and this can ultimately help transcend how you play.
​
Singing Practice
In 1926, notable jazz singer, Louis Armstrong sang, “Heebie Jeebies”, which became a national bestseller. While singing the song, he didn’t know all the lyrics and invented a gibberish melody to fill time. This was the inception of scat singing, which means the voice was used in imitation of an instrument. Later, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, and Al Jarreau were key influences of scat singing. Just like scat singing mimicked the sound of an instrument, you can also sing rhythms you want to play. When you can say it, it makes it much easier to play it. There have been many times in my playing where I struggled to play something I created. However, when I sang the phrase out loud, it helped me physically transfer this to the drum set. Singing a rhythm can give you clarity on how to articulate an idea on your instrument. We have the ability to make a variety of sounds with our voices and can use this to our advantage when playing our instrument.
Note Taking Practice
With the vast information technology era we live in, it can get very overwhelming focusing single-mindedly on one concept. Just type in “music lessons”, and you will come across millions and millions of hits! After a long day of work and family obligations, it can be difficult finding time with getting behind your instrument. A good antidote to this is studying an instructional book, DVD, or online class series. For instance, I have made it a goal to methodically work through all my drum DVDs. I have sticks, a pad, and notebook available. I take careful notes on what I am learning and frequently pause the DVD to mimic what I am learning on the drum pad. There are times I can only do this 20 minutes a week and other times a few hours a week. Regardless of the duration, there is always incremental progress. I have now gone through numerous DVDs (and still have many to explore). This “note taking practice” has greatly enhanced my playing level, and it has given me many new teaching insights. When I am able to get behind my drum set, I will review what I learned in my notes, and thus, have brand new material to practice. Note taking practice is a great tool to use when single-mindedly beginning and completing concepts on your instruments. It avoids the common mistake students make, which is jumping all over the place and not knowing what to practice due to excessive amount of information available.
Inspirational Practice
We have all seen amazing acts of talent. Whether on a television show or YouTube, there have been amazing displays of God-given talents from people of all ages. I have seen videos of 14 and 15 year old drummers playing in worship bands at their church who have captivated and inspired me. Inspiration is what fuels desire, motivation, and innovation. We all fall into ruts when playing our instruments, but it is inspiration that propels us out of these times of stagnation. It is important to have various influences at your instrument. Listening, reading, researching, and watching your influences will inspire you to grow and try new things on your instrument. Not only does inspiration serve as a platform to learn new concepts, but it also is a means of daring to move forward. It provides a way to explore the unknown on your instrument, exploring new ideas that may have never been explored. As a musician and full-time business owner, my time is very limited, so I make every effort to make the most of my practice sessions through careful planning and preparation. Sometimes this isn’t enough to help me reach my fullest potential when I practice, so I either listen to the music of my favorite artists on my smartphone Pandora stations or listen to CDs of instructional music books I have while I am driving. This puts me in the mode of practice and provides great inspiration to develop new ideas. Conversely, if I am doing something completely unrelated to drumming and then just transition into practicing, I am much less prone to feeling inspired to generate new ideas. In John C. Maxwell’s book, Becoming a Person of Influence, he states: “When you consistently listen to others, you never suffer for ideas. If you give people opportunities to share their thoughts, and you listen with an open mind, there will always be a flow of new ideas.” Just like listening to others generates ideas you would never think of on your own, listening to your influences will provide new possibilities on your instrument!
In Brian Tracy’s book, Maximum Achievement, he states that: “Whatever thought or action you repeat often enough becomes a new habit.” He goes on to say: “The main reason for so much underachievement and frustration is simply that people do not know how to get the most out of themselves. They don’t know how to apply themselves for maximum performance and happiness.” In other words, hard work, repetition, commitment, planning, and discipline are the means of advancing on your instrument. While it can be difficult spending hours on your instrument every day, these practice principles, if rightly applied, will stir your creativity just like stirring cream begins to permeate in a cup of coffee. Further, putting these principles into practice a little bit every single day will enhance your playing and infuse motivation to keep practicing!
THE IMPORTANCE OF GOAL SETTING
Whether you're a musician, athlete, student, or business owner, goal-setting is a necessity to make progress. Goals should always be written down and placed in a visible area where you can review them regularly. This serves as a great reminder of what your goal is, where you are within reaching that goal, and what you need to do to achieve that goal. Apart from having clear, written goals, we only have mere ideas and impulses, which immediately lose purpose and motivation. Many people have creative minds and imaginations, but never reach their goals because they fail at this first step. Others fail to reach their goals because they blame their external environment. For instance, some will put the blame on their parents not motivating them, and others will put the blame on their upbringing. These external circumstances are completely irrelevant to setting goals. Having a clear and written goal, followed by an action plan to achieve it and self-discipline to maintain focus, are the key ingredients one needs to attain his/her goals.
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In this resource, we will take a fresh look at the S.M.A.R.T. goals definition. You will learn very practical and applicable ways of achieving your goals through this definition. We will then discuss the necessity of self-discipline, and conclude with a series of questions to ask yourself in the process of goal-setting. These are not deep philosophical, theoretical concepts that are over our heads; they are basic principles to follow that will assure successful goal-setting and productivity in our lives.
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Specific
Specify your goal and what you'll do to achieve it. Be clear and concise. A goal such as, "Being a better person" is vague and has no specification. However, a goal such as, "To boost my letter grade from a C to an A by increasing my studying time to two hours a day" is a specific goal, because you're clear on the goal and the action step to achieving it. Be clear on what your goal is and what specifically you will do in reaching it.
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Measurable
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This is similar to being specific in goal-setting. When setting a goal, determine how it will be measured relative to your current situation. For example, where are you presently, and where will you be in the future? What things will you do to get there? An example of a measurable goal can be: "To increase my average class percentage from a 75% to an 85%, I will increase my study time and commitment to class."
Attainable – Think big in setting goals. The larger the goal is, the more motivated you will be in achieving it. One of the best ways of making a goal attainable is to identify something you enjoy doing. The more you enjoy it, the more attainable it will be. You will press on, regardless of trials and circumstances, because your heart is in to what you're doing. Another great facet of attaining your goal is learning from past mistakes. Learn from missed opportunities and mistakes you made. What did you do wrong and what will you do differently? Learning from past failures brings wisdom, progression, and ultimately, makes a goal attainable.
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Realistic
While it is important to think big, we must also be reasonable. Many people never reach their goals, because they are unrealistic. They set goals too high and don't have the capacity and enablement in achieving them. Be honest with yourself. Make sure the goal you set is within your means and ability. Furthermore, make sure the goal is within the parameters of your talents and strengths. For instance, what good would it be if I said I would like to become a professional baseball player within a month? Baseball is not my interest or talent. On the contrary, if my goal was to learn a unique four-way independence beat within a month, this is reasonable and realistic as it's within my strength and talent. Lastly, being realistic in goal-setting will encourage and motivate you, because it is attainable. In other words, you are setting a goal within your talent, so this will motivate you in the process of achieving it!
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Timely
All Pro Running Back, Adrian Peterson, tore his ACL in a meaningless game in December of 2011. Many thought his career was on the decline and some thought it was over! However, Peterson was determined to start the 2012 season. Not only did he start, but he became the Most Valuable Player of the NFL and was just 9 yards short of breaking the all-time record for rushing yards! What was the solution to his success? There is no doubt that he has an amazing talent, work ethic, and physique for his position, but how did he recover so quickly? One of the solutions was devising timely goals. He set himself certain goals to attain within a time span. He worked hard and stayed on track in achieving each goal before conquering the next one. I share this story because it is a wonderful example of a person setting goals within a time frame, reaching them, and achieving his ultimate goal of making a full recovery before the start of the season. Our goals must also be like this. If you have a goal that is time consuming, break it down into segments and give yourself a window of time in attaining each segment. Do not proceed to the next segment until the current segment is completed. Be very clear, specifying a time frame you will achieve your goal.
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This is a practical and viable guideline that will ensure anyone of reaching their goals. But why is it that so many people never end up achieving their goals? Many get off to start strong, but never finish what they started. Others set a goal and are faithful in achieving it, but get side-tracked by other goals and needs. Others simply lose motivation, because there is too much procrastination between the setting of a goal and the working of a goal. The one vital ingredient we need to assure a completion of all our goals is self-discipline. Cultivating a life of self-discipline is the essential component and bridge that will connect us from the beginning to the completion of the goal. Self-discipline is the ability to focus, eliminating all distractions. It is acting on work ethic, concentration, resilience, and vision, rather than on impulse and emotion. Too often, people allow their emotions and impulses to get the most of them and end up procrastinating their goal. For example, when there is a free opportunity to work on a goal, they will have an impulse to put on a movie, watch a sports game, or hang out with friends. Thus, the desire and discipline of achieving that goal greatly diminishes. There is a cost to self-discipline. There is a high degree of sacrifice. Any individual you speak to who has been successful in their field has a life of self-discipline. They gave up many things their emotions compelled them to do. Whether it's refusing to watch a sports game, waste time on facebook, or hang out with friends, being sacrificial is paralleled to self-discipline. Successful people in their fields are organized, manage their time effectively, and continuously stay on task. How can we cultivate a life of self-discipline? It can certainly be acquired and developed. It does not take some naturally gifted person to possess it. This is a skill that is developed over time by developing a life of good habits. One of the best Christian Bible expository preacher and teacher of our time, John MacArthur, gives us the answer. In his book, Called to Lead, he stresses the importance of starting with the small things in life. For example, clean your room. Organize your office. Get in the habit of putting to-do lists together. Read, volunteer, or do things that are edifying. Avoid entertainment (e.g., excessive television, social media, etc.). Be on time. Finish what you started. Follow through with what you say. Practice self-denial. For instance, the next time you have a desire to eat a banana split ice cream, say no and order ice tea. I am paraphrasing some of these small steps, but MacArthur's point is that when we begin self-discipline in the mundane things of life, this will pour out in the more significant things in our lives. As you can see, self-discipline has nothing to do with natural talent; it is a skill that is developed with persistence. This skill will subsequently lead to being a victor in goal-setting!
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BELOW IS A LIST OF QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK YOURSELF AS YOU BEGIN YOUR JOURNEY OF GOAL-SETTING:
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Why do I want to reach this goal?
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What are the things in my life that are detrimental to developing self-discipline?
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What are areas in my life I need to develop so I can stay on task in completing my goal?
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Is there another person who successfully reached my goal? If so, what did he/she do in reaching it?
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Will my goal negatively affect other people's lives? In other words, will I be so immersed to the point of neglecting other important areas of my life? If so, what can I do to find balance?
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What is my motive in reaching this goal? Is it for my own pride to impress others, or is it to make an impact toward others?
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How will this goal enhance my overall skills in my craft?