Betterment

Any endeavor to better yourself, music related or not, works the same: music, fitness, relationships, dance, writing, speaking, the list is endless. In any arena of betterment, we fight for our goals only to be knocked down over and over again. It’s a constant battle to better oneself from a place of acceptance and love rather than a feeling of not being good enough.

If you accept yourself and love yourself, challenging yourself to be better through the pursuit of something difficult is incredibly fulfilling and 100% guaranteed to not go well.

You will fail.

But failure only feels awful when you are not honest about where you are on your journey. If you accept where you are, you should also accept that failure is part of the process of getting better at something. You must build upon a sturdy foundation of self-love and learn from mistakes and failures in a productive way.

Why do you want to improve?

It’s great if you are working hard in the practice room because you want to improve your technique.

If you are working hard because you feel like your technique isn’t good enough, you’re trying to be a player you aren’t. You change the way you sound rather than improve the way you sound.

If you hit the gym every day to be healthy or improve your body, awesome.

But if you force yourself to go to the gym because you don’t feel attractive or fit enough, you’re trying to change who you are, not improve who you are.

Improvement is based in self-acceptance and self-love. Change is based out of self-rejection and not feeling good enough.

The thing is....

        Betterment and change look the exact same.

Your friends will tell you, “Oh! You’ve lost so much weight! You look great!”

And you’ll know in that moment if you have changed yourself or improved yourself. You will either be loving and accepting of your progress and continue to improve, or you will not love where you are on your journey and you will continue to chase this better version of yourself that does not exist.

You teacher may say,”I’m so proud of how much you’ve been practicing. Your sound is getting so much better!”

And, again, you will know in your mind if those hours spent in the practice room were healthy or not.

You cannot get enough of what you do not need.

Music students feel like they need flawless technique.

Some people feel like they need to be skinny.

Some people feel like they need a six figure salary.

Some musicians feel like they need to win a top tier job.

This “need-to-achieve” belief comes from the undeniable need of self-acceptance and self-love. We think if we achieve those things, somehow we will feel good enough.

You will never be satisfied with your technique.

You will never feel skinny enough.

You will never own as many expensive cars as you want.

You will never feel fulfilled sitting principal in a top tier orchestra.

Because all you NEED is self-acceptance and self-love.

You are already good enough and the love and acceptance of yourself is the only way to feel fulfilled as you continue on your journey to be better.

By accepting and loving every part of your journey, your technique will be good enough. Your body will be fit enough. You will have enough money. You will love sitting in a top tier orchestra section.

And you will have achieved those things by improving yourself instead of changing yourself.

Wherever you are on your journey of improvement, you are already good enough.

Accept yourself

Love yourself

Better yourself