Flow and Fluidity
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This morning I had the pleasure of chatting with Nate (@8020drummer), on his podcast. We covered a range of topics around mindset, personal value, goals, and in general, the quest to becoming a world-class player.
I can’t stress enough, that is all I’m interested in - becoming a world-class player. Now, I don’t mean the type of opportunities that may come from that level of player, nor do I mean the ‘accolades’ either, I mean purely getting my playing to a world-class level - the player I see in my head, and within the short time I have here. That is it.
The second you remove expectation from your craft, and pursue it purely for the joy of growth, everything becomes much, much easier. Flow state can be more readily accessed, the mind is more robust, and the body gives in to concepts quicker. There are so many benefits.
But how? Simply because you’re not bogged down by the weight of feeling you’re owed something for the time you’ve put in. Growth and personal mastery is the reward, and that bears fruit you are not even aware of yet - on and off the kit.
I’m in a deep growth period at the moment, and more-so than usual. I have recently isolated some more areas I want to develop, and have structured a tedious daily 2hr practice routine to accommodate this. This routine is broken into
- 4x30mins ‘categories’
Hands down, my biggest jumps on the kit happened when I knuckled down like this. When I got organised, set goals, built a framework with firm boundaries, and showed up daily… rain, hail, or shine.
- As a side note, I’m enjoying a couple less mics currently. So no hats, no 3rd (mono) snare, no rooms, no ride. It’s a bit of a Steve Albini approach doing the ‘no hats mic’ thing.