Guitar players: setting long-term goals is crucial for progress, right?
❌ WRONG!
At least - the way most people do it. ☝️
Saying: “I want to reach outcome X by date Y” is stupid.
Why?
1. The deadline is random af and almost certainly - realistic. The longer the time frame - the less accurate your prediction.
2. If you don’t hit the goal (very likely), you’ll feel like a failure.
3. If you do hit the goal, odds are - it’s because you’ve set the bar way too low and could’ve aimed for something far more ambitious.
4. You have to wait a long ass time to know if you were practicing correctly to hit your goal. And The whole time you’re practicing, you're feeling unhappy because you haven’t reached it yet.
5. If/when you ever reach the goal, it feels not enough because you want more... so you're left unfulfilled.
A better strategy?
✅ Set process-based goals you can knock out in a single practice session.
e.g. Spend 10 minutes on:
... building muscle memory with a new pick grip…
… relaxing tension in your jaw,
… cleaning up your finger rolling with sweep picking…
… playing a riff in time, etc.
This way, every repetition gives you feedback on how well you’re practicing.
You end each session feeling accomplished.
And the more of these practice sessions you stack up, the better your playing becomes.
HowToPracticeGuitar
Guitar players: setting long-term goals is crucial for progress, right?
❌ WRONG!
At least - the way most people do it. ☝️
Saying: “I want to reach outcome X by date Y” is stupid.
Why?
1. The deadline is random af and almost certainly - realistic. The longer the time frame - the less accurate your prediction.
2. If you don’t hit the goal (very likely), you’ll feel like a failure.
3. If you do hit the goal, odds are - it’s because you’ve set the bar way too low and could’ve aimed for something far more ambitious.
4. You have to wait a long ass time to know if you were practicing correctly to hit your goal. And The whole time you’re practicing, you're feeling unhappy because you haven’t reached it yet.
5. If/when you ever reach the goal, it feels not enough because you want more... so you're left unfulfilled.
A better strategy?
✅ Set process-based goals you can knock out in a single practice session.
e.g. Spend 10 minutes on:
... building muscle memory with a new pick grip…
… relaxing tension in your jaw,
… cleaning up your finger rolling with sweep picking…
… playing a riff in time, etc.
This way, every repetition gives you feedback on how well you’re practicing.
You end each session feeling accomplished.
And the more of these practice sessions you stack up, the better your playing becomes.
6 months ago | [YT] | 22