As someone with an affinity (compulsion?) for optimizing and productivity in a culture that is enthralled with achieving more, it can feel like being in a never-ending loop of employing the next best app, setting reminders in our inboxes and calendars, and trying new programs for productivity, always on the cusp of our best selves and output yet.

The key points if you want to keep your brain in check when you’re working on something really difficult. You’ll never know your true potential if you’re not fully present for the task at hand.

There is a tremendous amount to be learned from musicians, but as creatives we would do well to remember that any discipline can teach us the way toward trusting and growing our artistic instincts and coming closer to a true expression of what is in our minds and hearts.

Where our instinct is to be avoidant, the answer is not blind repetition or hope but detail. We find the detail through the process of solving as opposed to doing. Doing feeds the sense that something can still go wrong, that judgements will still be made by the audience we’re imagining. Solving, however, trains us in repeatable thoughts and actions - neural pathways we can strengthen and trust that are independent of how we feel.

Do you think about your shoulders often? Musicians probably think about them more than the average person, but I would guess that we all think about them more than people did even two decades ago before the prevalence of personal computers and smart phones.

No matter whether you like to play outside or not, the reality is that we want to sound our very best no matter the circumstances. With the outdoor odds stacked against us, playing our best just requires a little more preparation and planning.

Our perception of the life we can live is what creates our lives, and a willingness to prioritize what feels valuable and satisfying to us is both practical and necessary; an earnest type of genius that ushers us onto the main stage of our own life.

What are you observing when you practice?

Understanding our skills of observation can be the key to unlocking confidence and musicianship.

Thoughtful Refresh Series: Check In 2. How it’s going, what I’m noticing, where I started…

If you follow along with me on Instagram or The B-List newsletter, you know that my big personal project for the summer is working on my routines.

What do our breathing patterns, posture, low back, and leg muscles have in common? A relationship with our hips. Whether we can feel the connection or not, our hips are a major determining factor in our ability to breathe efficiently and to navigate low back pain or discomfort.

Thoughtful Refresh Series: Check In 1. How it’s going, what I’m noticing, where I started…

If you follow along with me on Instagram or The B-List newsletter, you know that my big personal project for the summer is working on my routines.

But there is an even bigger part of our lives as performers that the iceberg can represent, and that includes our approach to daily life outside of making music. Routines of all types, planning ahead, reflecting on what’s behind us…tending.

Routine may be an external resource, but it has everything to do with how we build skills, whether we’re trying to establish a practice routine for our instrument, a habit of mindfulness, or a physical practice of exercise or stretching.

Developing movement practices that genuinely help overhaul our mental clarity doesn’t require an elaborate routine, and often is more sustainable in small doses easily applied throughout each day. Through the implementation of small, helpful habits and observation we can connect the body and mind and create the calm and clarity we desire in our lives both on stage and off.

The way being busy makes us feel and what we need to do to cope with high-demand periods of work will change as we get older and more experienced. Intentional planning can create success and prevent burnout.

Four books on process for creatives with work to do.

Our lifetimes are long, and it’s absolutely worth the effort it takes to address the things that make us feel anxious. Because it’s so acceptable to discuss stress and anxiety now, there is also a comfort in relating to everyone having it rather than taking the sometimes tedious and mundane steps toward overcoming what stands in our way.

If pain blocks awareness, then maybe the reverse is true - building awareness builds proprioception, which in turn builds the effectiveness and ease of the skills we work so hard to develop and maintain.

What we are willing to lovingly layer into our every day life with consistency is what will create the greatest impact in our well being long term.

By becoming more acquainted with ourselves we become more efficient observers and more accurate and efficient managers of our construction.