Hi friends,

Becoming a better singer (or better programmer or poker player!) is only partially about quality practice and a great teacher.

There are a few X factors in the learning process of a creative skill that feel quite mysterious. I’d like to demystify, for starters, one of the most common.

Some days, the stars align, and everything just feels good. It feels like somebody unlocked something inside you! Everything feels lined up, you are able to do radically more than you could the day before! But the next day you try again, and… it’s all tough. Once more. Ugh. We’re back to feeling stuck. That wonderful day was just a one-off…

😤 This frustrating experience is common across disciplines

Some days you’re locked in, but they’re rare, and most students are confused as to why these days happen. And after these “random” Blessed Days slip into the past, they’re quickly categorized as anomalies and forgotten.

I want to share the factor I teach my students to dramatically increase the frequency of those Blessed Days. And by doing so, help you unlock a much shorter learning curve.

The factor is this: deliberately design your own personal mistake-welcoming environment

I’ve been lucky enough to participate in a couple of dozen choir programs, sometimes as a singer, accompanist, or director. The great conductors I witnessed did something it took me a little while to notice: they made each person feel special, wanted, and needed. This affected their personal experience deeply.

The second thing the great conductors did was not just tolerate mistakes, but encourage them, ask for more of them, laughtogether about them, and to take far more risks that were likely to create even more mistakes!

It is extraordinarily easy to participate in an environment like that: because it’s fun! And it’s meaningful. And it’s kind. And your mistakes aren’t stopping points; they’re launchpads. Not to mention:

📈You will find yourself growing rapidly

But the high-impact trick is this: doing it for yourself. Designing a mistake-welcoming environment for your own internal, personal world.

I’ve met few people who have a naturally positive inner narrative. We’re biologically hardwired for a 7:1 negativity to positivity ratio, so it’s hard work for any of us to rescript that train of thought.

But what if I told you that your external environment affects your learning capacity, pace, and retention? (You can search PubMedfor the science on learning environment to go deeper.) And your internal environment even more?

Or just think back in your life: did great teachers who crafted mistake-encouraging environments stimulate great learning moments for you?

Think of that favorite teacher from when you were young, who has a special place in your heart, who changed your inner life. Think of the learning environment they crafted for you.

Then: do it for yourself. (This is tough. It is also an “unlock” that accelerates learning big time, so it’s worth the effort.)

• Don’t just tolerate your mistakes. Revel in enthusiastic mistake making, for risk taking is the lifeblood of learning! The more rapidly you make mistakes, the more rapidly you learn. The only mistakes you don’t want to make are fatal. All others are welcomed because they are necessary and good!
• Let yourself know that what you’re doing by transforming yourself via learning is beautiful, and it is wonderful, and it is special. And it is a way of saying “Thank God I’m alive!” by engaging in the miracle of growth and joyful learning.
• Are you frequently using frustrating phrases like “I can’t do this” or “I have no idea how to make this work”? Simply add the word “yet” to the end of your negative self talk. Instill hope with a simple word! “I can’t do this yet” is a work in progress who’s going to get there! But “I can’t do this” is a finality, and I can’t think of a time where that’s helped me or anyone else.

Don’t wait for someone else to design a mistake-welcoming environment

Do it for yourself, to unlock a rapidly shortened learning curve.

Have a wonderful week!

Edward

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♥️ My Favorite Idea this Week

• 🍕 “You always have pleasure in doing your thing well; it must give you independence from the whole buffoonery into which we have been born.” A quote from Albert Einstein, within the pages of The Elements of Pizza: Unlocking the Secrets to World-Class Pies at Home. Doing a thing for absolutely no other reason than it gives me joy in doing it well is the experience of freedom. For me, it’s making world-class pizza at home. That’s why I love the location of this quote so much! (Einstein and Pizza? Perfection!) I hope you have some activity in your life that you do for no other reason than the pleasure of doing it! If not…there’s always pizza 😋

👨‍💻 My New Blog Posts

• ​The Confidence Formula​
  This is the confidence formula that I teach all of my students. I've used it to change my own life, and I hope you can use it to change yours.

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✍️ Quote of the Week

“Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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