You just got off work, you’re heading home and you hit some traffic, all the while you got that riff in your head and you just want to bang it out when you get home.

This now becomes a war, it becomes a fight. It’s a fight between you and the resistance to pick up the guitar.

So you’re a few blocks away from your house now and you can hear the piece of music in your head.

You can see yourself play the idea and you’re even closer to your house.

You get home, you open the door, and all of a sudden you gotta take a piss.

The fatigue from the day starts to set in as you relieve yourself.

All of a sudden you forget about the guitar, for a second.

The phone rings, then you see your TV and you’re tempted to turn it on.

Your room needs cleaning, your bed wasn’t made, your mom or your girlfriend, or your wife gets home and they remind you of something you have to do.

It’s only been a minute and a half that you’ve been in the house, and ALL these thoughts have run through your head.

I can tell you friends, theres a war going on in between your ears.

Its in your mind.

You might not have the discipline to control your mind right now to keep it focused on your goal.

Therefore, lets look at these distractions more closely and then at some solutions.

Distraction 1

People

This could mean that someone calls you on the phone. It could mean something someone said about your playing or about the difficulty of the song or maybe even how difficult the music industry is.

Maybe its the look on someones face that says they dont aporove of the notes you chose or the riff you came up with.

It could be your own band member. It could be a sibling. Pay attention very carefully.

What other people think is NONE of your business. Focus on YOU.

Work out, eat healthy, practice a ton and envision yourself walking down the street as a great guitar player.

Distraction 2

Tv

The pull of your tv is STRONGER than your urge to play guitar. Why is that? Is this true for you? If so, then change that.

Change the channel in your mind by focusing on guitar and not the movie or show you feel like watching. If some of you would just sacrifice a little time you would be much further ahead.

The problem is that you dont realize that you do have the time, and not the discipline, to sacrifice some tv time for some guitar time.

In 5 years time you could be an expert in guitar or you could be an expert on Netflix… or whatever video game youre playing.

Your choice.

Distraction 3

Negative feelings.

Maybe you think you’re not good enough.

Heres a clue…its YOU that had that thought.

No one else has even mentioned this to you, and if they have, they’re life is worse off than yours. So don’t worry about it because it’s not even true. You invented that. Why would you do such a thing?

Negativity will ruin you.

Start listening to positive audio such as you tube motivational videos, a podcast such as no guitar is safe or gary vee’s dailyvee podcast.

Instead of smoking pot or wasting time, read a guitar mag online or from the bookstore.

Download an audio book on a successful person you admire or on music. Be curious. Be positive. Its a MUST.

You can, you will, you MUST.

Distraction 4

Lack of commitment, planning and discipline.

Listen, if you dont want this then thats fine but if you do, you better take this very seriously.

Your ego will distract you. It will lead you the wrong way.

The obstacle is…the way.

If you are too arrogant, you won’t see your mistakes.

Everyone makes them.

You need humility and 🔥 in your heart to play great 🎸.

Kill off the ego and be a humble student of this instrument and you will find joy and happiness on every corner of your learning journey.

If you dont, you won’t.

So in closing, be disciplined and kick some ass. Be vigilant of all the distractions getting in your way.

You can be aware of these things by calming your mind through meditation.

Once you are aware, avoid the distraction and zone in on what you know you want to do and thats play great guitar.

Distraction 5

Your cell phone.

Unless you are networking or marketing or working on an ad or taking notes or writing lyrics or writing chords down or contacting record labels or learning some guitar or music….you are wasting your time on your cell phone.

Get rid of your cell phone and throw it in the river.

Think about how much time you waste on your cell phone versus how much time you can use wisely, towards something thats gonna make you feel good and thats productive.

If you spent half the time you do on your cell phone and instead spend it on the guitar, you would be a successful guitar player.

Instead, you lollygag all day on your phone.

Every day. No days off. No excuses.

Check out my 5 min practice list in the menu above.

We all have 24 hrs in a day. Some of us spend them wisely and some of us waste it.

Which one are you?

We ALL have at least 5 minutes at some point in the day. Stop lying to yourself by saying that you have no time.