Tuning Slide #5.25- Professional Action

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.
— Carl Jung

Last week I talked about being a professional or procrastinating? Part of it was based on this article by Mayo Oshin.

There she gave a two-part answer to how to become (and stay) “pro”:

◆ Thou shalt commit to a schedule.
A schedule is simply a pre-commitment to consistently put in your ‘reps’ and hours in your craft. Just like any new habit, your willpower and ability to delay gratification will also affect your consistency levels.

◆ Thou shalt believe that thou art ‘Pro.’
This is why it’s so important to shift your identity. You have the power right now to believe that you’re a professional. [But] To say that you believe you’re a pro isn’t enough because actions speak louder than words. Prove to yourself that you’re really a pro and do the things that a pro would do every day.

I then concluded that I have recently been guilty of procrastination. Being inspired by her directions, I said I needed to answer three final questions from Oshin’s article. So let’s see what happens.

◆ Am I committed to being a professional in any area of my life?
Two old statements I’ve used before came to mind as I worked on this:

• How you do anything is how you do everything and, from author Annie Dillard,
• How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.

What these both mean is simple and two-pronged. First, it isn’t in whether I say I want to be professional at something, it’s whether I am truly committed to it. True commitment means action, it means doing the things that lead to becoming professional. I have worked at that over these past 5-6 years and it has been exciting. I know it can be exciting and rewarding to get beyond my amateur mindset because I have done it in my life in other things, namely my careers and my commitment to a recovery lifestyle. I was not- and am not- just playing with those, I am committed to them. I have taken the time to do the preparatory work beyond just the basics. I have worked at improvement on a weekly, even daily basis. If my preaching after 30 years or my counseling after 25 hasn’t improved, well, I have not become professional. I have not done the deliberate practice.

This also says that I have been willing to commit to what is important to me in these areas, then I can do it in other things. I suppose I could do it in everything, but that would take up far more than the standard 24-hour/168-hour week. Other things can be hobbies, interests, likes- but I can’t spend the time to become “pro” in all of them. But I have become a professional, therefore I can do it. It can be how I spend my life. That means I can honestly answer “yes” to the first question. (By the way, it is always a good idea to take some time to reflect on this question about many things. Am I still committed to this particular professional area? Is it still a driving force of my life? That’s why I am still not 100% retired!)

◆ Is there anything holding me back from going pro?
Ah, now the self-reflection needs to get into deep honesty. There can be all kinds of answers to this, some of which might even indicate that one might need to look at NOT becoming “pro” in that area. That’s back at the commitment level. But having answered that question first, we can look at other things. A few that I have discovered over the years and in the past week include:
✓ Fear of failure
✓ Being overcommitted, i.e. not being able to say “No!” to myself or others
✓ Procrastination
✓ Having too many interests and hobbies
✓ Boredom with the mundane routine of every day
✓ Getting easily distrac… Squirrel
✓ Procrastination
✓ Self-Esteem
✓ Putting off until tomorrow what I should be doing today. (Procrastination!)

When I reach a procrastination point, that does not mean that I am in failure mode. It usually means that in one or more areas I am at a “stuck-point” or a “plateau.” When I move to the next question I can begin to put these in some order of what must be done while the stuck-point or the plateau is happening.

◆ What can I do to create the schedule and identity of a pro?
Now, the whole quote from Annie Dillard hits just as hard as the initial quote we usually hear.

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.

So last week I sat down and did the first step of a schedule, I made a list of the different projects and areas of my days (how I live my life!) and listed what needs to be done. That helps focus me, ease my distractability. If it’s written down it is less likely to get missed. I don’t call this a “To-Do” list. It is the raw material that tells me what is ahead, what deadlines I have made for myself, and allows me to do some planning of how much time needs to be spent at it. Once I get this I can now begin to think about how I want to do the schedule. I now see the skeleton of the day coming into being. I can put a timeline on some of them. For example, I need to have the Tuning Slide post done every week by Monday evening, latest. I need to take the time every day to practice trumpet. I have a monthly deadline for a book-writing group that requires writing and research. And so on…

That has helped me move beyond the plateau. I can now put some time frames on these. I know how much time I need and want to spend on my music routine. I know how much time I want to give to my physical fitness routine. I know what my different writing gigs will take. That means it’s time to move on. Stop worrying about the stuck-point or procrastination. I have a hunch I needed this time to put these all together in a new perspective.

As yourself, am I doing my “professional” stuff effectively? Am I putting my action and commitment together? Then make the plans- be deliberate. And, well, just do it.