Goals, Failures, and Sustaining a Practice Habit

Hi! 

A few weeks ago I announced that I’d be posting weekly lesson material.

I said to myself, “It shouldn’t take me longer than 30 minutes once I get the hang of it!” 

Whoops, after 3 skipped weeks I was definitely wrong there…Time to revise the plan! I initially started editing my earlier posts to cover my tracks, replacing “I’ll be posting weekly” with “posting occasionally." But decided instead to highlight my blunder and use it as a teaching opportunity: setting a goal, failing to reach the goal, and revising the goal is part of developing a sustainable practice habit!

One version of the famous Edison quote goes, "I didn't fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.” An accurate description of developing a practice habit!

So today, I’ve got 3 suggestions to develop a practice habit:

1. Don’t bite off more than you can chew: set an absurdly low daily practice goal to *form the habit* of picking up the guitar every day. Maybe 3 to 5 minutes! Studies say it takes anywhere from 21 to 66 days to make a habit, so play 3 minutes daily for several weeks and then it’ll be harder to *not* play the guitar each day!

2. Tie your practice to an existing habit or daily event (e.g., “right after school," "before my morning run," "after dinner").

3. Fix your practice to a specific time when you know you’ll be free (e.g., 6:45am), usually early in the morning or later in the evening work well.

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Enjoy the sun this weekend! ☀️
-Austin