Facilitating the Process

As an integral part of my mission as a teacher, I focus on helping my students move beyond old, unproductive thought patterns and practice habits and into new ones that are vitalizing and effective. Once we start this work, remarkable changes can occur. Although some changes are immediate, others that are tangled up in deeply ingrained habits and patterns can take more time to crack. But any unproductive pattern can shift, if you let it.

If you’re unaware of your unproductive patterns—or if you recognize them but don’t see them as problematic—you’ll probably cling to them until you fully realize that the same, old approach will continue to yield the same unsatisfying results. Bringing awareness to those patterns and beliefs is the first and most important step in releasing them, liberating you to make conscious choices that serve both you and your guitar playing.

As a facilitator of this process, I’ve seen that the more willing a student is to surrender to a new approach, the more quickly they reach their guitar goals. That willingness to flex and shift occurs naturally as we work together over a period of hours, weeks or even months and their trust in my guidance grows.

For that reason, helping someone I don’t know therefore has its drawbacks—but if you’re not working with me one-on-one, you can still get around obstacles by learning to be your own facilitator!

A Common Story

A new follower recently responded to a Facebook post that offered my latest e-book for free. He commented that the lessons in it were somewhat obvious and weren’t helpful to anyone who played beyond the beginning level. Of course, I hadn’t expected every lesson in that small book to be perfect for every player. But I was careful to select lessons that addressed issues I’ve seen almost everyone I’ve taught grapple with. THAT’s pretty powerful! (I thought! 😊)

But the real point of the story is that he made his assessment without trying the lessons—or even watching the videos! I clearly state in a couple of the lessons that the exercises need to be repeated daily to receive the benefits. He made a judgment and responded within minutes of downloading the book!

After posting his comment, he sent me a direct message describing his playing experience and his areas of dissatisfaction. It was clear to me that he actually could have benefitted from consciously and consistently practicing at least some of the material in the e-book he had downloaded. I didn’t tell him that, though, because he had just stated that the book wasn’t helpful to him—and so it wasn’t. Not having employed the beginner’s mind, that was his honest assessment. He hadn’t had time to build trust in my advice and hadn’t yet learned how to open to and make good decisions about how he spent his practice time. So, I told him I was sorry that he didn’t find it helpful, and I sent him links to other lessons and guides that I hoped would meet him where he is.

If you’d like help with lifting your limits, write to me!