Welcome back! As always, it’s nice to have you here!
Ever find yourself prepping for that next opportunity, everything is moving along nicely, and then, out of nowhere, that little (and very annoying) voice pops up in your head, introducing all this self-doubt that you never had prior?
That’s ol’ mate ‘imposter syndrome’, rearing his ugly head.
We’ve all dealt with this at some stage, in some shape or form. And guess what? It’s not actually the bad thing that we often think it is.
This came up during the Q&A of the MasterMind Drummer Clinic I held in Auckland this week.
I seriously love this topic. It’s one of many when it comes to breaking through our own mental barriers, and is quite backwards in terms of how we deal with it. So let’s dive in a little more, today.
But first, let me bring you up to speed with last week as a whole, and then set the stage (literally), for what is on this week, too.
There is lots to cover.
————–
It’s been a massive 7 days since we last spoke. It’s been full of course creation, course ‘re-creation’, a little pre-production, some teaching, and a good spread of content too!
Then, right in the middle of all that, I jumped in the car and took my MasterMind Drummer Clinic to Auckland.
What a week!
So, to start with, in terms of ‘course creation’, I’ve been editing together my latest offering, over at MasterMindDrummer.com –
This course launches officially on July 22nd, and I must say, I’m very happy with how it is turning out. I literally take you through everything I did, step-by-step, to build up my chops, facility, and voice, on the kit. I can’t wait to share it with you.
I then mentioned, course ‘re-creation’, and what I meant by that is, I actually re-filmed and re-launched my very first course –
The Key To Double Stroke Mastery.
I did this for two reasons –
1. I had more info to add. Yay!
2. I wanted to bring the look of this course, in uniform with my other courses.
It may not sound like much (or maybe it does), but re-filming a course is actually quite a mission, especially when you do EVERYTHING yourself. Phew!
Filming, editing, text over-lay, uploading, course configuring, layout… The works. I do it all.
Don’t worry, that’s not a complaint. I love it. I really do. It just requires time, focus, and attention, and some organising too, to make sure its executed properly. And… it was! 🙂
I’ve mentioned this many times, but in my opinion, world-class Double Stroke is ground zero for all drummers, and should be of the highest priority until they are achieved.
Dial your doubles in, and EVERYTHING gets so much easier.
Anyway, it’s all done now, and it’s LIVE.
Side note – If you already own this course, great! Your copy was updated automatically. But if you don’t, and are interested, now’s the time, as not only have I updated it to 2.0, but I’ve even brought the price down a little, too. Enjoy.
Then, mid-week, my wife and I packed the car to the brim with all my drums, my merch, sponsor giveaways, promotional material, oh, and our little 9mth old Maximus, too (can’t forget him), and we set off to Auckland, to hold the MasterMind Drummer Clinic.
I love The Tuning Fork venue. I actually played there last year, with US Rap artist, Watsky, when he was on the southern-hemisphere leg of his tour. (I was filling in for the mighty Sarah Thawer).
On entry, I was greeted with a sign above the bar, welcoming all ‘MasterMind Drummers’, which was a really nice touch, and set the tone well.
So, I play 7 tracks by 7 different artists I’ve worked with over the past 20 years, and with each track representing a different lesson/message learned along the way.
(Photo – Greg Haver)
As a drummer, I’m not sure if much else is scarier than performing in front of a room full of drummers, but luckily for me, the crowd was warm, receptive, and engaging, and made it very easy to relax and just have some fun.
Then, to finish the night off, I held an open Q&A, which was also an opportunity to give out some amazing spot prizes offered by my sponsors – sE Mics, Remo, Wincent, & Mono.
I’m always impressed with the level of questions I receive at these events, and this clinic was no different. Every question was considered, thoughtful, intelligent. All of it.
Questions like –
“What do you do to break through a creative rut?”
“How do you manage saying ‘no’ to gigs, and not just take everything that comes your way?” (I’m very selective)
“Do you suffer from imposter syndrome, and if so, how do you deal with it?”
These were all fantastic questions, and right up my wheelhouse. Any one of them could have been the focus of today’s newsletter.
But, as the title of this newsletter would suggest, it’s actually the last question I’d like to touch on today. The idea of ‘imposter syndrome’.
We’ve all heard of it, we all know what this is, and we’ve all experienced it at some point in our lives.
So what is imposter syndrome?
Well, in a nutshell, imposter syndrome is simply the feeling of inadequacy. It’s the feeling that we don’t deserve what we have, or we are not good enough to complete/fulfill something we are working towards.
In short… it’s not a great feeling.
I’ve read and listened to many fantastic opinions on this, as it’s quite the topic of discussion in the personal development space, but there is one take in particular that I’d like to focus on here today, and it’s from one of my favourite authors, Mr. Steven Pressfeild.
Steven wrote an incredible book called –
The War of Art:
Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles.
If you do not have this book…. GET IT! It’s a top 5, for sure. I recommend it to all my MasterMind students.
What makes this book special and very effective when it comes to dealing with the self-imposed mental blocks that we face as creatives, is defining these blocks as ‘The Resistance’.
Resistance is something we all deal with. It’s everywhere.
When we decide to press snooze on the alarm, even though we promised ourselves we wouldn’t. Resistance.
When we sit down to do 1-hour on the practice pad, and only end up doing 10-minutes. Resistance.
When we say ‘today is the day I am going to go for a run’, and don’t…. Resistance.
When we promise ourselves, “I’m not going to eat any treats until after dinner”, and literally moments later, we end up smashing 3 donuts. Resistance.
And when we suddenly start to doubt our ability, and feel we are no longer qualified for the task we are working towards… aka. imposter syndrome. Thats resistance, too.
This process is not unique. We all deal with it. Resistance is actually the path of the course for everybody. Everyone is designed this way.
Resistance is biological. It’s a throw-back to a time when things were much, much harder on a day-to-day basis. It was built in as a survival mechanism.
Resistance keeps us safe, warm, comfortable, fed, and away from any perceived stress on the body or the mind.
The thing is, life is much, much easier now, so this dated defense mechanism that we have built in, and that steers us away from challenges and doubt, is not actually serving us well anymore.
In fact, it’s now holding us back.
So what I like about Stevens’ approach, when it comes to this ‘resistance’, is he views this feeling as validation. He actually flips the whole thing on its head.
He basically sees the feeling of resistance as our north-star, and that if we feel reluctant to do something, we are most likely heading in the right direction by doing it.
It’s that simple re-framing that I very much resonate with. It’s an incredibly powerful tool that I use in all aspects of my life, and have done so for some time.
Now, when it comes to imposter syndrome specifically, it’s the same again. Steven discusses it as a manifestation of resistance also, and that it’s actually a good thing.
He sees imposter syndrome as a creative state. It’s an indicator that
A. You care.
B. You’re hungry for more, and
C. As a necessary step towards leveling-up.
He suggests that feeling like an imposter is a natural part of the creative journey, indicating that you’re pushing boundaries and stepping out of your comfort zone. These are GREAT states to be in, as we all know.
So, going forward, anytime you’re feeling inadequate, insecure, or doubtful about your ability, its fine. You’re actually on the right path. Just take a second, and –
Be The Imposter I know You Truly Are…
Let’s leave it there for this week. I have a 4am start as I’m flying down to Wanaka, for my next drum clinic, and then followed by 3 back-to-back Black Comet shows, in Wanaka, Queenstown, and Dunedin. Lets go!
This week is going to be HUGE.
As always, thanks for taking the time, and thanks for all your feedback, too. I really appreciate it.
I read them all. So please, if you have any thoughts, send them through, and let’s get a dialogue happening.
Don’t forget… Stay hungry! See you next week.
Stan