Adopt The Process and The Practice
MANY OF US who are interested in sport will have heard of The Process.
It’s possibly most associated with recent record-breaking Dublin GAA manager Jim Gavin, but it, or versions of it are helping elite sports teams all over the world reach their potential.
It’s the opposite of The Outcome, or the result. It’s all about what you put into your training and matches, not what you get out of them. It’s about getting the best out of yourself, and trusting this process to improve you individually and your team collectively.
Many teams who adopt this mindset don’t achieve greatness as quickly as Jim Gavin’s Dublin. Indeed, there are often growing pains, teams getting worse before they get better, but that’s all part of The Process. Stick with it and things will improve, and while success is not guaranteed, it is more likely.
A creative equivalent is The Practice.
Let’s draw a parallel to sport for a minute. Thirty-one counties don’t win the All-Ireland each year. Does that make each of them a failure? Of course not. Try telling that to anyone in this county in 2002, or 2007, to name two recent landmark years for Sligo alone.
Likewise in music, there’s only room for one song to be top of the charts (at least that was when there was a meaningful measure of how popular your song was). So does that make every other musician a failure? Again – of course not. Try telling that to any gigging musicians who have never had a chart hit but can expertly bring the crowd along with them every night they play.
So one way of dealing with this ambiguity regarding success is, like in sport, not to be concerned with The Outcome. How popular your song is, in other words.
Focus instead on The Practice, and once again while success is not guaranteed, it is more likely. So what is it?
It’s the daily grind, it’s getting up to work not because someone told you to, but because you promised yourself you’d do it.
It’s setting aside an hour a day to write music because you want to be a better composer. It’s sitting down with your instrument for four hours each day because you know that is what it takes to reach the level to which you want to get. It’s sitting down with that new recording software each morning until you know it like the back of your hand. It’s challenging yourself to write lyrics, or a poem, or a scene for a play inspired by the third line of the second paragraph of page 28 of the Sligo Weekender each week.
Whatever it is, if you want to improve your skills and therefore your chances of success in a creative industry, adopting The Practice on a regular basis will only help.
Kieran Quinn plays piano and brings people together in music. He can be contacted by email at kieran@kieranquinn.ie. More at kieranquinn.blog
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