Greetings Friend!
We’ve come to that moment that only happens every few years - the Olympics!
I recently ran across this wonderful article:
Mindfulness, self-talk, and an obscure chunk of the brain help elite athletes get through the training grind.
I’ve always observed how training to be a singer and training to be an athlete are very similar. Not only do both pursuits require discipline and focus, but they are both physical processes. Singing requires careful control and awareness of how your body works, albeit in different ways than, say, a basketball player. Additionally, some sports like figure skating even involve an intimate marriage of physicality and artistry, just like singing.
Therefore, we singers have so much to learn from Olympic athletes (and vice versa).
Personally, I’ve always imagined Olympians living lives of extreme rigor - get up at dawn to practice, taking breaks only to eat and sleep. This article paints a different picture, especially about how the brain stays motivated.
The article takes about learning to love - or at least accept - the grind. “[Olympians] enjoy the working out as much as they enjoy the competition.”
As we take on the process of singing, we are bound to encounter things that are difficult and require practice. Often we are impatient to get to the “good stuff” - singing a song, doing a performance. Subsequently, we often miss incredible opportunities to observe our progress and enjoy the first steps.
Since the beginning of this year, I have been trying to learn to play the guitar. On January 1st, I began coercing my fingers to wrap around the neck of the guitar and listening to incredibly sour sounds when I strummed the strings. After practicing for a few weeks, I picked up the guitar one day and played a chord. For the first time, my fingers went to the right place without strain. I strummed the strings, and - ta da! - I heard a beautiful, clean chord! I was suddenly in love with the sound of the guitar! My hard work was beginning to pay off. That single chord has continued to motivate me for weeks now, and more beautiful chords are showing up.
In additional to loving “the grind” of practice, our singing voices are asking for opportunity to be heard before being judged.
“Becoming a Navy SEAL requires swimming for 50 meters without taking a breath. One trainer realized that the SEAL-aspirants who are most likely to have trouble with this task are the ones who get intimidated by it before they even try. So, he began telling them to focus on executing each stroke individually instead of the entire, 50-meter stretch.”
So many people desire to sing but are terrified to even begin. We think it’s going to be hard, and therefore it is.
“Some of the most successful athletes aren’t necessarily the strongest or fastest, but simply the ones who are best at staying motivated.”
You never know what sort of sound may come out of your mouth when you sing, and you never know how that sound will make you feel when you hear it. But we will never know until we TRY.
Our voices are powerful instruments of expression, and they are waiting to be heard. | 
