As you may or may not know, I was a musician for roughly 13 years. I played the tuba from the time I was in 7th grade until I was a junior in college. During that time I participated in competittive auditions for numerous bands and orchestras. Yes, they have competitions for this 
. One of the things I was fortunate enough to experience was an opportunity to be a featured soloist on more than one occasion. I’ve linked the video here if you are really craving loud sustained booming sounds. A large part of being soloist in any musical group is controlling your mental focus. Here’s just a few things I learned from one of my private lessons teachers. I realize now that he was teaching me about personal development.
You’re the only one who knows when you made a mistake
We often have a tendency to get caught up in mistakes. We get outside of our own heads and ironically in the heads of other people. Yet, you don’t know what they’re really thinking and they don’t know what you’re thinking. They don’t know that you actually made a mistake most of the time. Unless that person happens to be an expert in tuba concertos or whatever it is you are doing, it’s unlikely they know that you made a mistake. Even if they do, who cares? It’s not really relevant to success unless it’s a complete disaster.
Don’t Dwell on Your Mistakes
One of the qualities that I saw hold many talented musicians in my high school and junior high bands back was a tendency to dwell on a mistake. In fact the inspiration for this post came from a comment that Elizabeth@Moretothislife.net wrote about beating herself up over making a mistake in one measure of a piece of music. If you start getting caught up in mistakes you will inevitably make more. It’s a complete downward spiral. As I’ve said before shake the wipeouts, learn from them and move on.
Focus on what you’ve done right
The other part of what I found interesting about Elizabeth’s comment on my previous post was the fact that she was beating herself up over one measure. If you assume a piece of music has 300 measures and you’re focused on the one that you did wrong then you are selling yourself short. If you focus on what you’ve done right you’ll feel a thousand times better about yourself and you’ll manage to silence that voice in your head that is often your toughest critic.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
One thing we must realize of our nature is that we tend to focus on our mistakes and never on learning and improvements. Unless we realize this human tendency, we will keep on repeating our mistakes. Unfortunately, few are wise to take this path.
I’m a big fan of “no one knows if you’re making a mistake.” After 12 years of basketball, I signed a scholarship to play volleyball in college. The beauty of this sport switch was that in contrast to basketball, where my parents constantly advised me to either pass or shoot more, or be more aggressive, I would play absolutely horribly in a volleyball match only to be greeted with, “GREAT game!” afterward. Loved it.
Jenny´s last blog ..Hip Hop Dance Class: I Love You, But I’m Not in Love with You
@Walter: It is natural for some reason to focus on our mistakes. But like you said if we can get wise to how unproductive that is we then become much more powerful.
@Jenny: That’s pretty funny. I’m not a very good basketball player, but I’ve noticed that a tendency to dwell on the shot you just missed leads to many more missed shots.
Dwelling on our mistakes is the best way to start off on a bad day. Focus your mind on the focal point of positivity, its an easier way to live.
Very creative post, we may need to do a post together my email address is jonathanfigaro@gmail.com. Love your work…peace and have a great Day!
Jonathan Figaro´s last blog ..If You Don’t Act You DIE!
A nice topic to dwell on. I think it’s fine to focus on a mistake as long as you learn from it and then move on as Walter says. Perhaps there is a connection between dwelling on something due to wanting perfection (I can easily imagine why you would do this as a musician, you are probably seeking perfection if you played 300 measures) versus a mistake that is not as important to you as it is not “core” to who you are. I say core because we often identify ourselves with something that we put a lot of effort into and it becomes part of who we are. A mistake is a terrible thing to waste if you don’t learn from it. Not acknowledging what you are doing right is just as bad, to your point.
Marc Winitz´s last blog ..My Breath as a Weapon
@Marc: Great point. I think there is no doubt that you can learn from a mistake. As a musician you just have to learn from the mistake after it happens. You can’t get caught up in it.