Hey guys,
This is as much me talking to myself as it is coaching and inspiration.
The title of this post is learning to play covers. Everyone starts with covers whatever the goal/discipline/medium. No one starts off drawing strictly from imagination and some secret muse within themselves. We start off imitating others, and in the case of music, it's learning covers. (In addition to scales and other exercises that instill solid basics.) There's a lot less angst in sitting down to learn a song/practice scales/copy a picture, whatever, as a new artist/musician/etc. than to try to just pull something out of your hat that is some perfect expression of your innermost self. It doesn't happen and the pressure pretty much kills any chances of doing well.
Starting my own business, and putting all my goals out on the table is proving to be one of the most educational things I've ever gone through. There's no boss to blame, there's no one looking over my shoulder or hindering me, it's just me with a blank canvas and figuring it out as I go.
And that's where many people (myself included) come up short. We do it all ourselves. We reinvent the wheel (often poorly) we try to psyche ourselves up, and we do it all in and of ourselves.
No wonder so many people quit and settle in for a long run of quiet desperation.
I've officially had to quit doing that, and saying so in a public forum makes it that much more official.
Most people can't do much as one person against the world. Anyone acting alone in their own strength and on their own wits is a closed system. Closed systems tend to devolve, run out of energy, and trend towards disorder and entropy.
I'd challenge you to start at the core level, whatever you're background to connect with something bigger than yourself. For me, Crossroads church has been the place that has helped me to connect with friends, it's challenged me, and has provided some great opportunities to get outside of myself and grow. It's been a place that has helped me let go of a lot of half-thought limiting beliefs about God and about myself.
That's at a core level. I've still got a lot to learn, and I will post on this as this series evolves.
On practical level, when you've dealing with nuts and bolts issues specific to whatever task or goal you're trying to achieve, it's way more effective to learn from experts and imitate greatness. For me with work, that can be experts who are respected within a specific community of trainers and who have a proven track record. It's simplifies things. Learn their systems, use them for training my clients, and make adjustments as necessary.
This is a world different than starting from scratch. Now I've got a big picture of what I'm going to do with my clients for the next 16 weeks. Anyone can show up week in, week out, without really knowing why they're doing what they're doing, and never making any real progress.
I used to think this was cheating when I did this with my group classes and personal training sessions, but not in the Pilates studio. In Pilates, you learn the system, you learn the progressions, the various series, and where they all fit together, and for the most part each workout was the same for 75 percent of the exercises. The other 25 percent would address the person's specific needs. This lends consistency, the clients really learn what they're doing, and it saves your career as a teacher because you aren't spending all your energy at work improvising one workout after another and going home with nothing left for yourself.
I don't know about you, but I'm all for not having to improvise every hour of work, every important task, and feeling like I'm performing live and without a net. It's too much angst for too little payoff.
I hope you are up for this as well.
So in short...
Connect with something bigger than yourself. Get fresh energy. Get challenged. Be about more than just you. Learn from people smarter than you. Quit reinventing the wheel and put some systems in place. That could be as simple as using a calendar, balancing your checkbook, and keeping things organized. Don't despise small beginnings. Don't knock covers and practicing the basics. They'll take you far.
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