A New Year and with it a new opportunity to really excel at something. I trust you have already taken the time to review your last year’s vocal performance and that you have set new goals for 2011?!
I was racking my brains to think of what would be the ONE SKILL that you could really MASTER this year…something that would be really valuable to you whether you are a Top Vocalist in your own band singing every day or a new vocalist learning how to harness the potential in your voice, and suddenly it came to me… become an expert PROCRASTINATOR!
Let’s be completely honest, we can all procrastinate to some extent, but how good are we really? If I was to push you could you look me in the eye and call yourself a singer? If not read on, what follows are the top TEN areas that you can focus on this year to really hone your skills!
The 7 Steps to Procrastination Expertise
So how can you move your average vocal performance up a notch this year? Don’t forget YOU have to TAKE ACTION if you want to make changes. So make notes as you go through this article of what you are going to commit to do differently.
1. Set UNINSPIRING and DEMOTIVATING VOCAL GOALS
This is really fundamental. An expert procrastinator cannot afford to be motivated, so don’t set any goals that would
a) improve your vocal skills
b) improve your ministry or
c) inspire you to want to achieve them.
Keep all your singing goals, simple, achievable and mundane. Or even better, don’t bother setting them. If you can manage to follow this simple tip then you will be well on your way to enhancing your procrastination skills.
2. SPEND lots of TIME NOT PRACTICING
No practice can be an excellent way to waste time and can make you feel like you have achieved your goal so can do other things instead like watch tv. As you watch more and more tv you have less and less time to practice. So make sure all your free time is full of mundane activites that distract you from developing your singing.
The best way of not spending time practicing is by spending hours on Face book or Twitter. Really good procrastinators do this all the time, so their mind can be distracted with lots of idle information and chit chat.
In order to maximise not practicing:
- Make sure you always sit in a big comfortable chair.
- Have lots of tea, coffee and cakes on hand so you don't have to get up.
- Don’t allocate a specific time to practice and develop your techniques.
- Make sure you have your blackberry turned on so you don't miss the lastest facebook update.
If you follow all the above you should be able to really eek out every last procrastination opportunity here
3. Do ENDLESS INTERNET RESEARCH
Internet research is a great secret weapon. I have one client who admitted to spending 8 hours just looking for vocal coaches on google, trying to see if he could find a coach but didn't book a face to face session with any of them. He had to do the research all over again a month later! Of course he is one of my Procrastinator Gods, so he would be an excellent model for you.
To maximise this skill remember not to Power search (this can be a disaster if done correctly). A proper Power search may reduce your choice from 400,000 down to 15. How long is that going to take to research? Clearly not long enough, so avoid at all costs. Also remember to keep all searching as aimless fun, don’t try and be specific as this could lead to a faster decision, thereby robbing you of the opportunity for more mindless browsing.
4. Avoid DECISION MAKING
At all costs you must follow this golden rule. “Decisions are the stepping stones of progress” (Dominic Ashley-Timms), so avoid them if you truly want to achieve procrastination mastery.
What is really bizarre is that even bad decisions are good for progress as you still move forward by learning what doesn’t work and they allow you to refine your strategy. So don’t fall into the trap of making bad decisions either, it is best to avoid making decisions completely.
5. FOCUS on all the MINOR IMPERFECTIONS
Focusing on your minor vocal imperfections is the best way of excusing yourself from joining the choir or praise team where you can work at building your vocals skills.
Keep asking yourself...”IS WHAT I AM DOING NOW FUNDAMENTAL TO MY VOCAL SUCCESS?” if the answer is NO then keep doing it. Stop doing anything that might move your vocal skills forward.
6. DON'T LOOK for OPPORTUNITIES to DEVELOP
Another favourite. We all know how important it is to have lots of free time available to just sit at home and relax, so this tip has a double advantage.
By sitting at home watching tv or wasting time on the computer you can avoid looking for opportunities to develop your singing skills like joining the choir or going to an audition.
By not singing regularly you can keep your vocal skills at a mediocre level, unable to hit high notes and with a well deserved limited range you can be proud of.
7. Watch TONS of ONLINE VIDEOS
Another favourite procrastination technique. Avoid working with a vocal coach by watching time-consuming grainy videos tutorials online. Ensure you bookmark as many pages as you can so you can build a rough catalogue of ineffective tutorials you can try at home. This is a sure way of dragging out your vocal development and thus eliminatng the need to seek real results with professional face to face lessons.
Next steps – taking Action
All Seven steps can really get you on the road to expertise in Procrastination, but as ever nothing will improve if you don’t make a conscious decision to FOCUS and TAKE ACTION.
If you can identify with more than three of these then you are probably well on your way to achieving procrastination mastery.
Its time to take a long and hard look at the habits you have formed and start making some changes.
Choose three areas that you could improve.
Score yourself out of 10, where you think you are TODAY against these 3 areas. Next, set an improved score that you want to achieve in a month’s time.
Make a list of the sorts of things you would have to be doing to justify the improved score by next month.
TAKE ACTION.
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