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You want to play this new song.
A difficult piece for your current skills on the piano.
And you feel frustrated because you don’t much progress.
You also fee overwhelmed at times because there is so much to learn, so much work to reach this goal.
Here is what I recommend you to do.
Watch the video:
Why are you feeling frustrated?
I feel you.
When I look at great piano players I feel the same sometimes. They play with ease these beautiful and difficult songs, but I know that I am far from this level.
Let’s take the example of a difficult song you want to learn.
You work hard on your piano at each session, but you seem to be so far from reaching your goal.
When you started to learn this song, you were making fast progress, but now, nothing. Or it seems so.
The problem is that you focus too much on the final result.
What happens is that you measure, you compare your current level to this higher achievement. And if you do this every day or every time you practice, it is very stressful because you don’t see much progress.
Your goal seems out of reach.
What you have to know is that learning something new is not a linear process. At all.
Look at the graph below. It might not be exactly like that, but it is to give you the main idea.
At first, you have all the energy and motivation and since you start from zero, you make a lot of progress.
But after some time, you don’t make any apparent progress.
You need to keep working to finally get to the growing curve.
So what to do to avoid frustration or overwhelm?
How to overcome your overwhelm?
Once you have set clear goals and you have your plan of action, forget about your goal.
Yes, don’t think about it. Or much less. As something in a distant future.
And focus on each step.
If you want to climb a mountain, you have to walk, step after step. (Taking a helicopter is not an option!).
Use your energy to grow each day or each practice session.
That’s all you can control.
If today you practice and you are able to play a few more notes, that’s great!
You have made a new step and you can be satisfied of this because it means you have worked on your goals.
Nothing else matters.
Conclusion
Working on something you can control is very efficient to relieve the stress you have.
When you look to something out of your reach, you only feel frustrated and overwhelm. Because you can’t act on that immediately.
Forgetting your goal and focusing on each step you can make towards it will make you feel much better.
Not always easy, but it is worth it. You don’t want to add more stress to your life.
Enjoy the process.
