Your Beliefs Are Blocking Your Progress (How To Build An Empowered Mindset)
Oct 26, 2024
Everything you do (or don't do), is determined by what you choose to believe.
This means that the beliefs you have in your head are responsible for every, single action you take – or don't take.
Your life (today), is a reflection of your past behaviours – the things you have and haven't done.
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Your bank balance – a result of your earning and spending behaviours
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Your physical fitness – a result of your eating, drinking, sleeping, and exercising behaviours
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Your mental wellbeing – a result of the quality of information you consume, and the way you think about things
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Your musical skill – a result of your playing, learning, and practising behaviours
Did you experience any difficult emotions as you read the list above? Perhaps a sense that you want to be doing better, in one or more of these life domains?
It's good if you did – it shows you have a sense of awareness about the life you have created for yourself so far, and that you are open-minded.
Being aware and open-minded are extremely helpful character traits – they provide the conditions needed to start making improvements.
In this article, we will explore how certain beliefs can block our progress, and how we can get rid of them to achieve a more empowered mindset that leads to better life outcomes.
The purpose of building beliefs that empower you is to enable you to make changes in your life that lead to the results you want. So, although this article focuses on beliefs about piano playing specifically, you can apply the principles we discuss to any area of your life in which you want to drive positive change.
This is powerful stuff. Let's get started.
Understanding Beliefs
"Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny."
– Mahatma Gandhi
A belief is a deeply held idea or perception that something is true or exists – often without the need for any proof. A belief provides a mental frame of reference which is used to interpret and navigate your reality.
There are two types of belief:
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Empowering beliefs are positive, growth-oriented beliefs. They drive progress and lead to positive results. For example – "I believe I can improve my piano skills if I play often, and with purpose."
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Limiting beliefs are those which limit our potential and restrict our personal growth. They fuel inaction and block us from making improvements. For example – "I've missed my opportunity to get good at music – I'm too old and should have started when I was younger."
Each of these beliefs can be conscious or unconscious.
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Conscious Beliefs – beliefs you are aware of (you know what they are and could tell someone about them).
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Unconscious Beliefs – beliefs you have (that influence your behaviour) but you are not actively aware of.
If you want to experience personal development in any area of your life, including your piano playing ability, you can use a wonderful psychological technique called 'cognitive reframing.'
Using 'Cognitive Reframing' to Upgrade Your Beliefs
Your limiting beliefs are holding you back and stopping you make progress. To generate positive results in your life, you need to remove these limiting beliefs.
An effective way of doing this is to use cognitive reframing – the practice of changing how you think about a situation to view it in a more positive or helpful way.
Using cognitive reframing, you can swap any progress-hindering beliefs (limiting beliefs) for more helpful beliefs – beliefs that help you succeed (empowering beliefs).
Remember, you're aiming to build a set of beliefs that give you a more empowered mindset – a mindset that leads you to take the actions required to create the positive transformation you want.
Let's get specific and look at some examples.
Exploring Common Limiting Beliefs That Might Be Blocking Your Piano Progress
Now we'll look at 5 limiting beliefs common to piano players, and reframe them into empowering beliefs – so we can generate the conditions needed for positive transformation.
1. "I've missed my opportunity to get good at piano."
This is a nasty belief that assumes there is a specific age or 'window' when learning piano is effective, and that once this time has passed, it's too late to enjoy progress and become a skilled piano player.
Thinking like this is most dangerous for new piano players. It can lead you to avoid starting altogether, or to put little effort into building a playing habit that builds your confidence and brings you fulfilment.
Many new players think they are too old and the moment has passed. The thing is, people of any age can believe they are too old (this is not just reserved for people in mid-life or older).
The truth is, people of any age can learn to play piano well if they seek out effective learning resources and methods.
Piano playing is not just about achieving excellence, and being note-ready to perform to sell-out audiences! The learning process itself will bring you fulfilment and enjoyment for the rest of your life, if you just get started.
The Empowering Reframe – "Every moment is a new and exciting opportunity to build my piano skills. I can start today and make meaningful progress – every day – for the rest of my life."
2. "I don't have the natural musical talent needed to play piano, well."
This dangerous belief assumes that your piano playing ability is something you're either born with or born without, and that playing piano well is dependent on having some sort of innate talent.
Left unchecked, this belief may cause you to feel discouraged, frustrated, unworthy, and unmotivated to play and practise. This can cause a lack of ambition, or even to quit piano before you've had the chance to develop your skills.
This thinking is flawed because it ignores the role of regular practice, education, and patience in acquiring piano playing skills. The majority of musicians become 'talented' through effective and persistent playing – they hone their craft.
Even if you pick up music relatively quickly compared to others, you still need to dedicate time and energy towards becoming better. This is the rewarding part – making consistent and gradual progress, over time, no matter your current level of skill.
The Empowering Reframe – "Piano skills are built over time by playing often, with dedication, effort, and patience. I am capable of making improvements every time I sit and play."
3. "There's not enough time in the day to make progress with my music."
Again, another faulty belief that assumes meaningful progress can only be achieved with hours and hours of uninterrupted practice sessions every day.
This faulty thinking may lead you to avoid short playing sessions because you believe small amounts of practice are not enough and won't make a difference. This can lead to frustration, slower progress, and ultimately a desire to quit playing altogether.
Short, focused playing sessions, with clearly defined goals, are very effective for building skills and retention of knowledge. The quality of your playing sessions is far more important than the duration of your playing sessions. Intentional playing sessions lead to the reward of gradual improvement, over time.
The Empowering Reframe – "Short, intentional playing sessions – completed consistently – create momentum and musical progress."
#4 – Music theory is overwhelming – I will never learn it all.
This is a misleading belief. It assumes that music theory needs to be learnt all at once, and only once it has all been learnt will you be able to succeed in music.
Thinking like this may create a mental barrier to music-making because you believe you need a full understanding of music theory before you're 'qualified' to develop your piano-playing skills.
This belief also creates an all-or-nothing mentality which can discourage you from taking manageable steps to study music theory.
Music theory is worthless if it is not applied to build practical, playing skills. Therefore learning music theory should be done progressively, in bite-sized chunks – purely to inform the current playing-skill you are developing.
The Empowering Reframe – "I can learn music theory one concept at a time, focusing only on what enhances my current playing skills."
5. "My hands are too small to play piano."
This belief is crippling. It assumes that if your hands are not a specific size, you are incapable of becoming a skilled piano player.
This is dangerous for piano players because it can prevent you from fully engaging with your instrument. This can erode your confidence to such an extent that you believe there's no point in even learning piano.
You think your potential is capped right from the start – and you'll never be able to make or play beautiful music at the piano because your fingers are too short, or your hands are too small, for example.
This type of thinking completely ignores the vast range of music that can be played masterfully without requiring large hands, or long fingers. There is so much music – particularly in the beginner and intermediate ranges – that can be played by people with smaller hands.
Also, any piece of music (including technical, advanced-level music) can be adapted to be played with techniques that allow for expressive and compelling performances.
The Empowering Reframe – "With consistent practice and education, I can build the skills and techniques needed to play complex piano music, beautifully – in spite of my hand size."
Getting Practical – A Simple System To Build An Empowered Mindset
Hopefully, by exploring these 5 common limiting beliefs, you can now see why these types of beliefs are so detrimental to personal progress, and how you can use cognitive reframing to build a more empowered mindset. A mindset that sets you up for success.
I want you to experience the positive transformation that becomes possible by developing an empowering belief system.
So here is a practical, step-by-step process to help you achieve this:
Step 1 – Become Aware Of Your Limiting Beliefs
Shining a light on the beliefs that are driving your behaviour is the first step to making positive change. Over the course of this next week, journal about your beliefs.
This will help you discover your limiting beliefs (both conscious and unconscious).
Question Prompts – Answering questions like the following is really insightful:
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What fears and doubts come to mind when I think about this goal?
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What are my reasons for thinking I might fail?
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What do I think I'm incapable of doing and why?
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When I make a mistake, what do I normally tell myself about it?
Track Recurring Self-Talk – Keep an ongoing record of any recurring, negative thoughts or phrases you find yourself thinking. (Things like: "This is too difficult for me," or, "I'll never be able to do this," or, "I wish I'd have started this earlier.")
Reflect on Patterns – At the end of the week, go through your journal and look for any prominent, recurring patterns of thought. Identifying patterns or common themes, will help reveal your limiting beliefs.
Make a final list of your limiting beliefs.
Step 2 – Reframe Each Limiting Belief Into An Empowering Belief
The next step is to turn these unhelpful, limiting beliefs into helpful, empowering beliefs.
Take your list of limiting beliefs, then, next to each belief, write a an empowering reframe. You're aiming to adopt a positive perspective about the situation that encourages you to grow and make limitless progress.
See the examples above to remind yourself what this might look like.
Step 3 – Affirm Your New Beliefs Often
Finally, it's time to start integrating these new beliefs into your identity so they become natural ways of thinking. When you approach life with an arsenal of empowering beliefs, you begin to act in ways that create success. This success reinforces the benefits of your new empowered way of thinking.
To start with, you can just read your list of beliefs every day, so they become familiar. Any time you notice one of your limiting beliefs pop into your head, use it as a trigger to affirm your replacement belief – literally say the new, empowering belief to yourself.
By 'correcting' your brain each time a limiting belief tries to block your progress, and then taking action based on this replacement, empowering belief, your brain will eventually learn to default to a more productive and positive way of thinking.
Also, the more success you achieve as a result of using this technique, the more your brain will learn that you are no longer someone who is prepared to be hindered by a detrimental belief system.
You will change the way you think – and this is the catalyst for positive transformation.
I hope this article has inspired you to respect the power of your beliefs. It is my hope that you use this information to reflect on your current belief system and make any necessary changes.
Are your beliefs helping you achieve the results you want in life?
If not, now you know what to do about it.
