How to motivate yourself to practice guitar daily
There is nothing wrong with you if you don’t feel motivated all the time. That’s perfectly normal. Everybody feels down from time to time, even people that we call guitar heroes. There are no exceptions. Here's what science tell us about motivation. How does motivation work? According to the research of Stanford psychologist B.J. Fogg, motivation works in waves. There are times when we have high amount of motivation to do certain behaviors but there are also “down” times, when we lack this kind of motivation.
I's no surprise then that sometimes we just can’t make ourselves do things that we planned to do. If you're at a low point, it's almost impossible to motivate yourself to do hard things. You can pump up your motivation for a while, but it probably won’t last very long. You just can’t motivate yourself to practice guitar every single day. If you take guitar seriously then motivating yourself to practice is not a good long term strategy. You should definitely utilize the motivation when it is there, but you also need to have a plan for times when you don’t feel motivated. And believe me, those times will come (I just being honest). Here are two mindset shifts that can help you when motivation is missing: 1. Let go of the assumption that you need motivation to become great guitar player As you saw before, motivation works in waves and one day you can feel on the top of the world, and the next day you’ll have a hard time getting out of bed. One day you feel inspired and happy and the next day you're down and out. And here's a solution: First, let go of the assumption that you need to feel good and motivated to be able to practice guitar. Sure it helps, but you can also do some serious work even when the odds are against you. For now I just want you to let go of the notion that you are not good player because you don’t have enough motivation. Trust me. You have more motivation than you’ll ever need. When I feel good and my motivation is high, I go straight to practicing the toughest stuff. When I don’t feel very well I go through a simple ritual. 2. Start simple, embrace consistency, build habits No matter how obvious this may sound, this is the way to go. If you are serious about playing guitar, you are going to practice for the rest of your life, so don’t try to do it all at once. You have plenty of time. You can practice for 5 minutes even if you don’t feel motivated. Don’t even think about motivation. You can use it when it’s there, but you don’t rely on it. Start with a practice routine that's so simple that it's almost impossible not to do it. For the first few weeks just focus on consistency. Don’t worry about volume. Once practicing your guitar everyday feels like second nature, you can modify your routine to fit your goals. Simplicity and consistency will help you build habits faster than if you try to change everything at once.
