Where Does The Magic Live? – Quick Practice Tip

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Hi, I’m Vi Wickam, and this is another myTalentForge.com Quick Tip of the Week!

Where does the magic live?!

We all want to become better musicians. Regardless of what instrument we’re playing, we want to become a master of that instrument.

We really want to own the instrument and be able to pay tunes that just flow out of us like it’s an extension of our voice.

This is our second voice […].

But, where does that magic live? How do we get there? How do we become a master of the instrument?

Well, I’ll tell you where the magic lives! And I’ll tell you where the magic does not live.

The magic does not live in your comfort zone.

Now that’s kind of disappointing because our comfort zone is comfortable! It’s nice to sit back in a lazy and chair and relax once in a while. But that doesn’t make us a better player.

We become a better player when we step to the edge of our comfort zone- when we step over that edge a little bit, outside of our comfort zone. That’s where the magic happens.

That’s where we can step things up to the next level.

So by taking on a piece that’s a little bit harder than you’re used to, by really stepping up your focus and increasing your level of intensity that you’re working on something…

Do things at the edge of your comfort zone. Do things that challenge you.

There was a recent study that showed that 45 minutes of practice a day at the edge of your comfort zone- things that make you uncomfortable- gives you more improvement. It helps you improve better than spending 2 hours a day doing things that are within your comfort zone.

So, step up your focus, step out of your comfort zone…

However, you look way outside of your comfort zone, and you play something that’s way too hard for you, you’re just going to crash and burn. Play in your comfort zone all the time, you never improve.

Step just outside of your comfort zone, and your comfort zone grows.

Imagine we’ve got our comfort zone here… here’s our comfort zone. I step out here, and I spend some time out here, and all of a sudden I’m feeling comfortable out here.

And by the time I feel comfortable out there, my comfort zone has grow to out here. And all of a sudden, I have all this increased theory on the inside.

So I step outside again, and all of a sudden, I’m spending more time out here, circling around more difficult things- things that I could have never thought of when I was in that smaller circle.

And all of a sudden, I’m comfortable there- my comort zone grows.

Now as our comfort zone grows, we have to step a little bit bigger. And then we have a gigantic comfort zone!

So if you want to create magic, you want to grow your comfort zone, and you want to master your instrument, step outside your comfort zone.

Because that is where the magic lives.

And that’s your myTalentForge Quick Tip this week! Hope you have a great day, and I will see you next time!

PS. The Peak Performance Series by Dr. David Wallace has some great suggestions for overcoming performance anxiety.