Fake It Till You Make It!

Hey Heroes,

So, we've been through how our environment impacts our mindset. We've decided to change our minds about how we're going to look at our situations. I think it's time to talk about a couple of great tactics to help us hit the mental "Reset" button so we can get on with achieving our dreams.

"One may conquer a million men in a single battle; However, the greatest and best warrior conquers himself. Conquest of one's self is the greatest victory of all." - Buddha

One thing that we have to look forward to, every day, is a fight. Yep, and epic struggle with ourselves. We are the only thing in this world that can stand in our way.

Every morning our mind tells us that we have to go to work and listen to that co-worker who's hell-bent on pointing out how we're a "lifer" with the company and we'll never take the step into the world of our dreams. Every morning our mind tells us that it's no use getting started right off, we've got an appointment in a couple of hours. Every morning our mind tells us that our back hurts a bit too much to carry that amp into the practice space. Every morning our mind tells us that no one likes our music anyway, so why make more of it? Do you know what? Our mind is absolutely right. If we listen to it.

What we're doing is rationalizing to ourselves. As one of my mentors, John Assaraf, is fond of saying, we are telling ourselves "Rational Lies". These things are only true if we accept them, because we are capable dismissing those thoughts and creating the reality that we want.

Here's where you throw out that "Bullshit!" again, and you're right. That is, unless you can convince yourself otherwise, because these tactics will never work if you don't give them an honest chance.

Our beliefs are nothing more than an established series of neural pathways in our brains that are used to firing in a certain way, but the cool thing about it is that we know that our beliefs are learned traits. Yep, that means that we can learn new beliefs, and replace the old ones. Sounds simple doesn't it. I'm not going to lie to you. It's not. In fact it's one of the hardest things I've done in my life, and it's an every....day....process.

Step one. Affirmations. Yep, there's that Stuart Smalley image coming into your head again! I can assure you that if you give this a chance you'll be amazed at how well it works, but be warned, it does take time. I think I was told that it actually takes 90 days of daily affirmation before you've created a solid, new belief. Yep, three months. This is what I call the "Fake-it till you make it" phase.

Affirmations are nothing but a series of statements that you would like to hold as beliefs. Every morning find a nice quiet place and read these, out loud to yourself, then repeat before bed. If you're really adventurous, record them in your own voice and listen to them while you work out, or drive to work, or sit in the park watching the ducks, or whatever. The point is that you need to tell yourself these things until you believe them. At first it's going to seem like you're lying to yourself, and guess what! You are!! So what? Within a few days to a week, I've found that I start asking myself, why not? Why can't I have these things? That leads to the certainty that you, in fact, can have the things in life that you want, but how?

Step two. Visualization. Yep, like I talked about last week, visualize yourself doing the things you would do if your dreams were realized. If it's playing a certain venue, close your eyes and picture yourself looking out over a sold out crowd. Visualize yourself playing your music and seeing the crowd go crazy. Use this technique after your affirmations, in the morning, and again at night.

Step three. Meditation. Despite my Buddha quote up above, I'm not advocating any religious practice here. Meditation is nothing more that clearing your mind and allowing your energy to flow. Hell, you should be doing this to facilitate songwriting anyway. Simply close your eyes and clear your mind. Pay attention to your breath. If any thoughts come up, and they will, just gently put them aside and go back to following your breath. 15 minutes to half an hour a day.

The three of these things combined will help you see that you are worthy of the things you want in life and open you up to seeing the opportunities to make those things a reality.

Try it a while and see what it does for you. If you stick with it and don't talk yourself out of it, you'll be amazed at what it can do for you.

Here's some suggested reading if you want to dive a little deeper into HOW it all works:

The Answer - John Assaraf and Murry Smith

The Success Principles - Jack Canfield

The War of Art - Steven Pressfield

Later,

The Six Letter, Four Letter Word

Hey Heroes!

This week let's take a look at "Change", and what it really means.

Last week we looked at some of the negative influences that pushed us into our current mindsets and I issued a little bit of homework. Did you really look at what you consider "Success" to be?

The first step of course is to figure out what success is to you. Some Indies I've talked with are happy if they get a decent cut of the door and have a floor to crash on before heading out to the next gig. Some still see that multi-Million dollar contract with a Major Label, complete with the private jets and diamond watches. Then there is, of course, everything in between.

What if I told you that any of it could be achieved? What if I told you that you were the only thing stopping you from achieving anything you want?

I know that some folks would say that I'm delusional. OK. One thing I know for a fact though is that everything that I have ever truly wanted, and refused to let anything or anyone interfere with, has happened. If you have in your head that the best you'll ever do is drag ass from club date to club date for a low guarantee and maybe a meal, then my friend, that is all you'll ever accomplish.

The other side of it's true as well. The Major Labels are full of acts that, talent wise, are nowhere near the caliber of a lot of Indie bands I've seen, but they got exactly where they were going, because they believed that they could and refused to hear anything to the contrary. Think I'm full of shit? OK. Take a look at the next MTV music awards though and tell me how much true talent you see there. What you're seeing isn't the best that music has to offer, what you're seeing are the ones that were the most driven to succeed.

What I'm saying is that only you have the ability to dream your dreams. Only you have the power to achieve those dreams. In contrast, only YOU have the power to kill those dreams, it's up to you.

In Quantum Physics there are two Laws that apply themselves to this situation.

First is the Law Of Relativity. The Law Of Relativity says that your situation is only what it is, as compared to something else. Meaning that, you are only poor as compared to that guy that has thousands of dollars in his account, and likewise, you are rich compared to the guy whose sleeping in a cardboard box under the overpass. Remember this when you're evaluating your situation. Too often we only look at how bad off we are and seldom do we look at our successes.

Second is the Law Of Attraction. The Law Of Attraction says that what you think about most you attract to yourself. This means that if you worry about your money problems, you're attracting more money problems. Likewise, if you're focused in on, and constantly visualizing the success you want, you will start attracting that success to you.

I know, this is where you check out and say "what a bunch of airy-fairy bullshit!". I hear ya, just hear me out.

Let me explain how this works. Have you ever focused on something so hard that you realize that that object suddenly appears everywhere? Example. You've always wanted a goldtop Les Paul. You think about them every day. You can see yourself on stage wailing away on one. It's your greatest goal and your biggest dream. Have you noticed that they keep popping up at shows, in magazines, hanging on the wall at the pawn shop or guitar store you run into a couple of times a week looking? It's not that they've become more plentiful, it's that by focusing so much on them you've retrained your subconscious mind to seek them out.

It works that way for anything, so use it to your advantage. Get a clear mental picture of where you want to go in your musical career. Picture it down to the shirt on your back and sweat on your nose. Hold that image. Visualize it. Love it. Let it go. Don't think about it, just wait for the opportunities to get you heading in the right direction to start appearing and take advantage of them. Repeat the process every morning.

Most importantly, be clear about what you want, and don't let anyone tell you it can't be done. Once you let doubt in, you've got to regroup and get back on track.

It's all on you. It's you're responsibility. Only you can decide to change your mind.