How to Get Motivated to Practice

"How do I get motivated to practice/play the guitar?" (Or anything else for that matter).

I said this before, but it's hard to have someone get motivated to play any instrument. It's not tied to your survival like needing to go out and get a job. You need money to live. No one will fire you if you don't sit down to practice for 20 minutes every day unless you're currently a professional musician in an orchestra or something.

Do a small exercise. Look at any of the "top dogs" you look up to on the internet. Their production value is very well done…for a reason. We're not going to talk about production here, but they're doing all of this for a strong reason (and it's probably money).

It doesn't have to revolve around money, but you need to pick some reason to keep you going.

Here's how we can manufacture the motivation to work on your craft daily.

A Strong Reason

If your brain doesn't see the point in what you're doing, you're not going to take the first steps.

You need to set a goal around the guitar. An inspiring, non-boring goal. It needs to excite you but scare you at the same time. I'd even invite you to think bigger than you normally do. Now don't go sharing this goal with the world. Keep it to yourself so you don't get unearned joy from sharing a goal you haven't accomplished.

Then do the usual tasks like breaking that goal down into milestones. If your goal is over the course of a year, what can you do in 6 months? Break it down more into 3 months, 1 month, 1 week and daily tasks.

If you had the goal of 5 million subs (wow) and you're sitting at 0, what do you think you could achieve in a year? How much music do you want to put out this quarter? How many songs do you think you could learn this month?

Know What You're Doing Today (Project/Song Based)

This is for the sake of the next practice session. What are you trying to learn next? I'd hope you have a song in mind. WRITE IT DOWN.

Then write down how much of the song you're going to work on. Is it the first few measures? What tempo are you going to use?

We're doing this to calm your brain down so it doesn't have to think "omg I have to learn that song!" What if I said "just go to the gym?" Which gym do I go to? Do I have the clothes? What workout do I do? What are all these machines? If instead I gave you an exact workout plan, your brain will think "OK I can do that" and there won't be as much initial resistance.

Work for the Smallest Amount of Time Possible (The 2 Minute Rule)

Stealing an idea from James Clear, the author of "Atomic Habits," set a small time to work with. If you've been inconsistent, it needs to be a time that's smaller than what your ego thinks you should do.

Start with 2 minutes and print out a calendar to check off the days that you finish it (aiming for 90% of the month). If 2 minutes sounds silly, good. That means it's simple enough to do. If you want to do more like 5 or 10, be my guest. Cap the time at 20 minutes so you have the chance to get up and take a break.

Proving to yourself that you can show up for these small wins starts to be rewarding in itself. You don't want to break the chain of consistent days. You're also proving to yourself that you're the kind of person who practices daily.

Reward Yourself

No matter the timeframe you've given yourself, reward yourself after you finish for the day. Your monkey mind needs an immediate reward to train yourself like an animal so that you want to do the same activity again.

Please make it a wholesome reward. Don't wreck yourself by eating junk food and staying up late with entertainment. Is there a milder form of entertainment you can use like one gaming session or one show? How about a small cup of fruit (lame, but it works).

Optional Step: Use the Mornings

To side step the reward idea, another way to show up consistently is to just work on music first thing in the morning. It's "scheduled" because you're probably waking up at the same time already. Your brain is fresh from a good night of sleep and your stomach isn't bogged down with dinner (and maybe dessert). You also give yourself fewer chances through the day to talk yourself out of it.

Optional Step 2: Dopamine Detox - The Final Boss

You can also go on a "Dopamine Detox." This means you remove any stimulating activity that pulls you away from working on music. If you're procrastinating or "not motivated to work on it," it's not like you're doing absolutely nothing. You're probably scrolling memes or playing video games or binging a TV series. What if those weren't in the picture? You'd be so bored that your brain will want some form of excitement. So since there's nothing left to do, music sounds appealing.

I'll write in further detail about this later.

Motivation is a Habit, Not a Trait

There aren't "motivated" and "not motivated" people. The people who show up consistently more than likely have something going on in their heads or in their environments to propel them into action each day.

Try out a few of these and see if they don't work for you.

Thanks for reading!

Go check out my music here.