MasterMind Drummer
August 12th, 2024
Newsletter #33
3 Gamechanger Mindset Shifts You Need Now!
Welcome to Newsletter #33! It’s nice to have you here.
As always, my intentions with these weekly newsletters are simple and direct…
- To encourage and motivate you.
- To put the power, accountability, and control back in your hands.
- To help knock down the imaginary mental barriers that you have put around yourself.
- To help you jump the queue when it comes to leveling up as a creative, on and off the kit.
That last one is important. I can’t stress that enough. Once you start to dial in a few things off the kit, your progress on the kit (and in life), becomes much easier. Trust me.
For me, my mission is to become the best player and person I possibly can, within the brief time I have here, and then, with that experience, share the process, and help others become world-class.
Simple enough, right? Haha. I wish it was…
That is it. Become better, and help you become better too.
Don’t forget, “A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats”.
*As I have new subs joining each week (welcome!!!), I feel it’s important to keep reminding you of my intentions here. 🙂
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What I want to talk about this week are 3 massive mindset shifts that impacted me greatly in my late teens. These are simple ideas, and ideas that I truly feel were ‘gifted’ to me.
If you haven’t come across these yourself yet, then hopefully they will have just as profound impact on you, as they did on me. And if not, that’s fine too.
But before we kick into that though, I’d like to start with a little reminder, as this is what I was thinking about when I woke up late last week…
Steve Jobs famously said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them by looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
I am very aware these sorts of quotes run the risk of sounding a little cliché or trite, but in my experience, cliché is good, and for good reason.
Cliché
noun
1. A phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.
Come to think of it, you could actually argue that adding the definition of cliché here, is a little, how you say… cliché, lol, BUT, I will say, that looking at this definition, the fact that the term means something is ‘overused’ actually tells me the idea has merit, otherwise it wouldn’t of been worth overusing in the first place.
I love clichés. They are super quick access to great information.
Anyway, back to Steves’ quote. Let’s read it again –
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them by looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
This is how I live 100% of the time – blind faith, trust, and most importantly, intuition.
Intuition is super important. Make sure you listen to your inner voice. This is a muscle you must be working at ALL times.
And look, it won’t always get it right, sure, but the more you work it, the better it gets. Trust your gut. It’s your north star.
We deal with conundrums daily that our inner voice is trying to respond to…
Should I join that band? Maybe not!
Should I practice today? Of course.
Should I read instead of bingeing Netflix? Probably.
Should I exercise today? 100%
Often, intuition is the part of our decision-making process where our feelings are removed, hence why we should listen to it. ‘We know we should do something, but we just don’t feel like it’.
Sound familiar?
You need to remove your feelings, remove expectations, trust the process, do the work, and most importantly, have faith.
So yeah, that’s where I wanted to start this week. A brief reminder that it doesn’t all need to make sense now, and it certainly shouldn’t always be easy, but just listen to your gut, act on it, be consistent, and keep showing up.
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Moving on!
So, as mentioned, I want to share with you 3 massive gamechanger realisations that came to me in my late teens.
I should say, too, as a jumping off point, my teenage years were very tumultuous to say the least, but looking back, I really appreciate them.
This goes back to the Steve Jobs quote, at the time you don’t know what or why things have value, but often they do.
They were tumultuous in the sense that I left home and school at 15, and started working full-time immediately.
The shift into full-time work at 15, wasn’t too steep, as at that point, I had already been in the workforce for some time. My grandparents owned a café, so from the age of 11 I was there most weekends, earning my crust.
It was good grounding.
This ethic was definitely passed down from my parents, as, although they were very different people, one thing they had in common, is they were both extremely hard workers.
They separated when I was quite young – around 4 years old, but thankfully they were both wired this way, so in both households, I was raised surrounded by this feeling of ‘ceasing the day’.
The attitude was simple – Go get it, as its all there for the taking. It’s all yours. Oh, and, ‘Your life – your responsibility.’
They were instilling this in me from day one.
I remember my dad getting up at 5am every morning, and as a sprightly 6-year-old, I would join him for a bowl of porridge, followed by my morning routine of Fraggle Rock, then followed by The Muppets. What a time, and what a way to start the day!
I now get up at 4-4:30am every day, so those early mornings definitely rubbed off.
Beyond just the concept of hard work, I think, in a broader sense, they were also teaching me about the idea of accountability. So take full responsibility for your life, and everything in it.
At any given moment, on any given day, one of two things is happening. You’re either taking accountability or playing a victim.
My parents were big on taking ownership of your life and your responsibilities. I’m grateful to have been surrounded by that.
I’d say that these small but powerful lessons somehow contributed to my outlook on most things, including these insights I’m about to share with you, so lets dig in.
1. No one is special or unique.
This sounds harsh, but it’s not. It’s merely stating that if someone else can do it, they’ve proven that you can to, if you are willing to do the work.
I remember watching a live Steve Vai performance at 17, with Jeff Campitelli on drums, and I’m not sure why that moment in particular gifted me this idea, but I realised right then that we are all the same, and the only thing that separates us is the time we have put into our craft. That is it.
The world got much smaller, and much more approachable from then on.
This was a big breakthrough as I moved away from idolising and holding people in a ‘godlike’ status, due to what they can do on the drums, and just started simply appreciating and being inspired by them instead.
Everything became attainable and achievable.
2. Drums are binary. Zoom out.
Now, this over simplification that I am about to share with you has the ability to rub some people the wrong way – purists especially, but just know my intentions are good…
When it’s all said and done, I see drumming 1 of 5 things. Thats it. Everything that we can do on the drums can be made up from, and boiled down to a combination of these 5 elements…
1. A Single
2. A Double
3. Linear
4. Non-Linear
5. Rest
*The only addition to this is dynamics, but that’s more something that can encompass all of them. That’s an emotion we apply to drumming.
Controversial, I know. But for me, to realise this in my teens, was actually liberation!
This macro/zoomed-out way of looking at things, moved me away from the more traditional archetype of working through rudiments (which are just made up of these 5 elements, anyway), and led me down a creative path of constantly asking the question –
What if I put a single on my left hand there? What if I put a double with my foot there? What if I played that as non-linear? Etc.
A simple, yet free and creative way to veiw things.
I would say this mindset shift was one of the biggest contributors to my more ‘freeform’ way of approaching stickings and voicings etc.
I still think like this to this day.
3. You Have Value – OWN IT!
This may have come from my parents – most likely my mum, but an area lacking for many, is self-confidence.
I’ve always been very proud of what I can do, and in turn, been willing to share it with others, and never worried much about what I can’t do.
The reason being, is when it comes to things I can’t do, I realised that I actually control that! And so do you! All you need to do is work on it.
But what you can’t do should never get in the way of being proud of what you can do, and then being willing to share that with others.
Never.
Understand that at any given point in your journey, you have value.
You are always further ahead than some, and behind others, that will never change.
So, know your value, be proud of what you can do, and don’t fret over what you can’t do. Own it, and be willing to share it.
Someone out there will appreciate what you have to offer, and take guidance from your experience, every step of the way.
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So there we have it…
3 Gamechanger Mindset Shifts You Need Now!
I was fortunate to stumble across these in my teens, and they profoundly impacted me going forward.
If you have come to these realisations yourself, awesome! If not, and you resonated with them, awesome, too! And if you disagree with any or all of these, awesome as well!
What I share via these newsletters, is my personal philosophy on and off the kit, and if these ideas trigger a response in a way that you disagree, that is such a great result, as it helps you align with your personal philosophy, which is all I could hope for.
Know what you stand for, on and off the kit, and own it.
Remember, there is nothing worse than beige…
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Let’s leave it there this week.
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 (and stay healthy!)
See you next week.
Stan