Guitar Success 101: Your Worthy Ideal

The great motivator Earl Nightingale came up with the following definition of success...
"Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal." I love that definition! What does this definition mean to you? Let's take a closer look at the worthy ideal part of it...

Please spend a few minutes writing down what the words "worthy ideal" mean to you. To me it is my vision of perfection...a vision of how I would ideally like things to be.It is a vision that I find inspiring and energizing!

If your success with guitar is totally dependant on working towards a worthy ideal, doesn't it make sense that you first need to figure out what YOUR worthy ideal is? How can you progressively realize something if you don't know what it is? Let's do some exercises to figure your one out...

Please invest at least a couple of hours doing the following exercises. They will really help you to build a picture of your worthy ideal in your mind's eye...

Exercise 1:
Imagine how would ideally like to play.Try and imagine what your guitar playing would sound, look and feel like.What guitar techniques are you a master of? How does your improvising sound? What about your composing? Please write your answers down now.

Exercise 2:
Imagine your ideal guitar playing career. Would you be a master guitar teacher? What about an amazing performing artist? Or what about performing as part of a highly successful band? How about being an in demand studio guitarist? What do you TRULY want to do? Please write down your answers now.

Exercise 3:
Write down your worthy ideal. Write it down in the present tense, as if you have already achieved it.Try to condense it down into a one paragraph statement.

Exercise 4:
Invest 5 minutes every morning and night to read your worthy ideal. This will help you to stay motivated and focused on what you TRULY want.

Clarity is essential. Without it you won't be able to start developing an effective plan to work towards your worthy ideal.

You may find as you answer the questions that self-doubt starts to creep in. You may doubt whether or not what you write down is even possible! This is normal. Just write down your answers anyway :) You don't need to know right now HOW you will achieve your worthy ideal. All you need to do is figure out WHAT it is.