A simple mental mindset trick will help you learn ukulele
with less stress and more enjoyment.
Don't try and be perfect.
Just try to be better than you were yesterday.
Giving
yourself permission to be a beginner ukulele player is liberating.
You
don’t have to be the best uke player, just enjoy being a better uke player than
you were yesterday. Enjoy the journey of becoming better.
TIP - If you change your mindset, your stress levels will be lower and learning will be faster. It is a physiological and psychological fact.
Stress
inhibits learning.
Learning the ukulele is about getting your fingers and brain talking, brain, and fingers
linked by neurons. The more stressed about making mistakes you are,
the slower your brain and fingers will connect.
Why Stress inhibits learning?
Well,
stress causes cortisol to be released into your body, and cortisol inhibits
neuron growth and cortisol also inhibit muscle growth.
You never stop being a beginner at something new.
Every time I come across a new ukulele chord or new ukulele technique I am a
uke beginner again. I don't know how to do it today, but if I play it
daily I realize that eventually, I will know it. Learning to play ukulele
isn't like a school with year classes, a school with exams to be passed or
failed.
Don't
Box yourself in.
Unfortunately,
somehow we box ourselves into groups e.g. Beginner ukulele or Intermediate
Ukulele or good or bad players, etc. Our perceptions limit us, too often
people beat themselves up about what they cannot do, and never seem to enjoy
what they can do.
Change your mindset - Maximize your 'cans' and Minimize your 'cannots'.
We
maximize our stress over what we cannot do, we increase the release of cortisol
and we inhibit our neuron and muscle growth.
Excellence
in playing music on your ukulele is what happens when you play over and
over again. Through consistency, your “best” will inevitably
evolve. Your Brain and your fingers will form better neurological
connections in small daily increments.
Embrace
failure - Minimise stress - Learn faster
Becoming
a musician is not about being without faults or failure, but how you learn
and keep going anyway, and that way of learning leaves a positive impact
on you, and on the world around you.
Success
is about perception.
If you celebrate the small wins, the small micro
improvements you make daily, then that is a success! Don’t
let your perception of success be some far off distant notion of perfection.
Enjoy what you can do today, and enjoy knowing that tomorrow you will be
better.
