The Performance Mindset

There will be some review of the last post in this one. How do we learn things though? 

...repetition, repetition, repetition! :) 

There are steps you can take to prepare yourself for performance. Three things you can prepare are:

1. Heart: Examine your heart to find out what your motive is for playing. Are you trying to please people or God?  Your main goal shouldn’t be to show people how good you are and how perfect you know your piece. That doesn’t mean you can’t practice hard and do your best. It doesn’t mean you should go into the performance with an attitude that says “I’m not here to please people so I just won’t try!” Your goal should be to bless the people but not to show off! Pleasing God should be our highest motive. There are three things God cares about:

• Effort: Did you practice your hardest?
• Attitude: Are you going into the performance attempting to do your best or already set up for failure?
• Stewardship: You should have a gracious heart when you mess up or when others do better than you.

2. Mind: This preparation is thinking over the performance mindset ahead of time.

• Dynamics: When you perform it’s important to play the dynamics in your piece so that you don’t bore people to death!
• Tempo: Another important thing is tempo. That is more for yourself than the people because if you go too fast it’s easier to make mistakes which then makes you nervous which makes you play faster which makes you make more mistakes and it just keeps going until you finally give up crying. J
• Don’t Try Too Hard: The last thing to remember when performing is not to try too hard! Trying too hard can make you expect too much of yourself. That can make you disappointed when you mess up causing you to loose your concentration and mess up some more and on, and on, and on!!

3. Body: These are the physical steps. In order to be physically ready for a performance you should rest well the days before the performance. Eating a healthy diet helps too. You should think through all the things that hinder playing (stress, cold hands, fatigue), and be prepared to prevent them as much as possible.

If you have done your duty and fulfilled your role then the results are totally up to God. You must be prepared to deal joyfully with whatever he brings you!

Nervousness when performing, the root of the problem

Do you get super nervous when you perform? Your knees knock together, your palms get all sweaty, and you think you are going to the throw up!? Why do you think that is? Oh wait, duh. Everyone gets nervous. That's just what happens when you perform, right? .....WRONG!!!! There is an answer! Maybe. It depends on how much you want to grasp the idea and make it a part of your life. If you've read this far I guess you might want to know what the answer is. Soooo, without further ado....drum roll please!!!

You are selfish and proud.

Yup, that's the problem. Not what you were hoping for? Well, sorry, I can't give you a four step process on how to cook the herbs to eat the night before you perform so that your stomach feels better (although that might help). I can give you a larger process on how to change your thinking though.

It all starts with the heart.
Quick disclaimer, if you don't have Jesus Christ working in your life, helping you, and being the reason you are performing, this process probably won't be very effective. 


1. You have to figure out why you nervous.  ..................okay, admit it. You are worried about what other people think of you. We all struggle with this. Don't think you're the only one! We are afraid that we will make mistakes and that people will think we are terrible at whatever we are performing.

So, up till now, we know that we are really playing so that people will think we are really awesome; and we're super nervous because if we don't play perfectly, they won't think we're very good.

2. So why should we be playing? Ultimately we are playing to please God. He is the one who gave us music and wants us to use it for His glory. (What is man's primary purpose? To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.) God doesn't count mistakes. All He cares about is that we are playing for Him, not for our own pride. We can't leave the people out all together though. Otherwise we would just stay home and play for God there. Much more comfortable. ;) We are definitely there to bless the people who have come to see us perform. But, think about it. If we play with a haughty spirit, mess up, make terrible faces, then walk off the stage crying...they probably won't be very blessed.

Okay, so we know why, in our sinful nature, we are playing. To have people think well of us.
We now know why we should be playing. To glorify God and bless the audience.

3. How do we not get nervous then? Just knowing the facts isn't going help very much. We have to decide in our heart that we want to change. We have to daily ask Jesus to take away our pride. To allow us to play for His glory instead of our own. Easier said than done!

Conclusion:
1. In ourselves we play for our own glory
2. In Jesus we should totally be sold to playing for His glory
3. We must pray every day that He would humble us (even if it means Him allowing us to terribly mess up to show that we aren't anything in ourselves).

So, that's the root of the problem. My next post will be on how to prepare ourselves as much as we can, perform at our best, and leave the results up to God. Helps immensely with nervousness!