The 3 Major Obstacles Stopping Us from Achieving Singing Success
The 3 Major Obstacles Stopping Us from Achieving Singing Success
- We don't set GOALS
- .. or, if we do, we don’t set the CORRECT goals, because
- …We don’t THINK
When we think about our goals, and set the correct ones, our priorities become clear. We then stop wasting our time doing countless scales and searching You Tube, listening to other people sing. This makes us feel better - which in turn gives us a false sense that we’re mastering the art of singing.
In fact John Maxwell - whom many consider to be the world’s leading authority when it comes to Leadership - mentions something very similar in his book ‘Developing the Leader Within You.’
He writes…..
“Recently, while attending a conference, I heard a speaker say, “There are two things that are most difficult to get people to do: to think, and to do things in order of importance.” He went on to say that these two things are the difference between a professional and an amateur.”
I would add that if you have not set a predetermined goal, then you are not going to understand what you need to prioritise.
So let’s start with the 1st major obstacle:
We don’t set GOALS
We can fall into one of a number of categories when it comes to Goal setting, however to keep it simple I’ll talk about just a couple:
- Just.Don’t.Set.Goals.Period.
Some of us (including myself!) can fall into this category. It could be because we haven’t
thought at depth about what we want and, why we want it. - Too Many Goals
Some of us set too many goals and we then lose clarity.
We don’t set the Correct Goals
We may set goals, however they are the wrong ones for so many reasons. It could be because the goals are too ambitious for now, or any number of things - but this is usually because………..
We don’t think
So let’s paint a picture. You’ve just heard the new Adele song or latest musical and the songs are Big……Emotional…….Loud, and you’ve been caught up in the moment and think ‘I want to do THAT.’ The very next day you go to school, college, or an Open Mic Night and you hear your friend do THAT very same sound you want to achieve, and all of a sudden the panic and envy kick in as you clamber to find a way in your mind to figure out how to do THAT. So you either:
a.) Give up, or
b.) Go home, put on your favourite record and proceed to have a go yourself. You find that you can’t hit the top note of the song, you start yelling for more volume and you may even start losing your voice - all that’s happened is you’re being led by your emotion.
This often leads to a feeling of hopelessness and the thought that ‘some people can just sing and others can’t.’ Our self-esteem takes a battering and we either give up or go to a voice coach and expect them to solve the problem in 1 lesson.
Strategy:
My experience of hearing voice after voice over the years is that, more often than not we can become far better singers if we stop and think about:
a.) Where we are in our development
b.) Setting some achievable goals with your voice coach, and developing ‘singing self-esteem’
c.) Committing to the process and breaking each step down into smaller tasks
d.) Committing to learning ‘how the voice work’s and ‘what is unique about your voice.’
e.) Taking some risks
Conclusion
Achieving a goal, may not bring you to exactly where you want to be, however it will provide an enormous amount of information, and give you more clarity about the next step to take in your journey.
If you would like to get in touch and talk about this in more detail - click on the text!