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Hey Indiana,
Years ago I used to play a monthly gig at a jazz lounge called Fat Cat in New York City (sadly has since closed).
It was a fantastic gig in the sense that I was playing with some really good players in the heart of the New York City jazz scene. The music was always very good.
However, my experience with the gig was often tainted.
Why?
Though perhaps no one from the outside could tell, deep inside I had on-and-off again poor musical mental health.
Some months I felt confident in myself, relaxed, and good about my performance.
Other months I felt self conscious, anxious, and filled with self doubt.
And like I said, while I don't think it was so obvious to the audience or my bandmates, this lead to inconsistent performances.
The months where I felt confident in myself, my performances were better, but most importantly, I had a lot of fun.
The months where I felt unconfident in myself, I made more mistakes, and I had a lot less fun.
There is something important you need to learn from this, so follow along with me here:
In 1962, a Japanese scientific study looked at 13 people who were allergic to poison ivy.
Each was rubbed on one arm with a harmless leaf but were told beforehand that it was poison ivy. And they were touched on the other arm with poison ivy but told it was harmless.
All 13 broke out in a rash where the harmless leaf contacted their skin. Only two reacted to the real poison ivy.
It's a striking demonstration that shifts in your thinking produce measurable, physical impacts.
"Positive" beliefs can give you strength and abilities that you didn't realize you had. While "negative" beliefs can leave you helpless to deal with things that aren't actually a threat at all.
As a musician, the critical thoughts aren't usually about physical objects like ivy leaves. They're beliefs that you've ingrained over many years about your musicianship.
In my case, I suffered from a belief that I was "less naturally talented" or "behind" other musicians - something I started believing as a kid learning to play guitar. This learned belief was affecting my relationship with the gig at Fat Cat.
So there certainly is incredible power in your mind - just waiting for you to harness it. But it's not as simple as just "deciding" to think differently.
You need a system for making these changes. And a way to embed them strongly enough that they hold up in challenging situations.
One of the reasons I've been encouraging you to consider joining my friend Mark's Unlock Your Performance course over the last several days, is because his program offers this kind of transformation.
Mark from Play In The Zone has been coaching musicians at all levels on the mental game of music since 2017.
Almost 2,000 musicians have now gone through his Unlock Your Performance course. It's where you can get his best help with achieving your full potential as a musician... so you can end the frustration of disappointing performances.
It's where you'll work on: becoming a completely fearless performer, executing flawlessly even when the stakes are high, and getting into the Zone so you become one with the music.
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