What are your wins? Why focusing on wins is the key to success...
Nov 02, 2020
"What are your wins?"
I start all my mastermind and coaching meetings (and even lessons) with this question.
Why?
Because by focusing on what is working, you shift focus away from the negative. Most of us humans spend our days focusing on what’s broken: our problems, the challenges and how are we going to fix this?
Don’t believe me? Tune into the voice inside your head for even just 10 minutes.
The Journey Up The Mountain Of Life
Imagine you're hiking up a big mountain. The peak always looks closer than it is. After a few hours of sweating and toiling your way up the the trail, it might still feel like you haven’t made any progress. The mountain peak is still in the distance.
But then, you take a water break, catch your breath, and turn around. Now, you see you've actually traveled quite a bit on your journey. You’ve made more progress than you thought.
This is exactly how most of us travel through our own lives. We constantly feel exhausted, burnt out, and overwhelmed because our goals still seem so far in front of us.
For the daily dose of hope and encouragement you need, focus on wins.
Why Focus on Wins?
So few of us take the time to acknowledge and pat ourselves on the back for a task accomplished – big or small. In fact, the smaller the win, the better. By starting to celebrate small wins in your life, you build the muscle and habit of expecting to win.
By focusing on wins, you will refill your tank with the energy of hope and encouragement. This success habit is a practice that is like a mental and emotional water break on your journey.
As the late motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said, “For success in anything…you need to prepare to win, plan to win, and expect to win.”
This quote nicely describes exactly what all success people, entrepreneurs and musicians do.
Musician's advantage
Music education is ripe with opportunities to practice this philosophy. It’s what I call the art of practice. And what is practice? It’s essentially preparing to win.
Here's a success habit bonus.
If you need some weekly inspiration and encouragement to practice, you can get ideas from my book The Game Of Practice: With 53 Tips To Make Practice Fun!
The ideas in this book were intended for music students, parents and teachers, but can also be applied to your career, school and life.
In sum, make sure you turn around, at least once a day to see how many steps you took on your progress path. Give yourself a high five, a delicious treat or maybe something more for a bigger win.
To your wins!
Best,
Andrew
P.S. I just bought an espresso machine to celebrate some of my wins. What a fantastic upgrade to my morning coffee!
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