A Little Psychology: Practice

Psychology penetrates our craft to the deepest levels: from how we construct illusions, the clothes we wear, the words we choose, and how we structure our shows. It surrounds us every step of the way, but many of us don't really understand what that means, let alone how to harness it.

Has this ever happened to you: You wake up and decide to practice your show so you get out all of your gear and start practicing...until that show you wanted to see was on TV. So what happened?

What happened is that your brain, while you were sitting in your living room, took a look around and thought to itself "This is where we watch TV!" So it shifted from wanting to practice to wanting to watch television. So what can you do?

Have you ever wondered why people have home offices? It's a space that they can focus on their work. That's all that happens there: work. So for the brain, when you walk into your office, starts thinking "work". It's a function of conditioning: every day you work there, so every time you go in it must be time for work. That's why after twenty minutes of practicing in your living room you move on to something else.

So, once again, what can we do?

1. Set up a home studio: Take a room and turn it into your home studio. Put in all of your gear, hang up some magic posters, set up a video camera and practice there. Don't do anything else in your studio. No watching TV, no surfing the internet, no sleeping! Only practicing! Don't have enough space to dedicate an enitre room to a studio? Set up a corner of a room!
   
2. Find a coffee shop: Or a library, or a park. Anywhere that is outside of your house as long the only time you go there is to practice. Try to find a place that stimulates you creatively. There is one coffee shop in College Station, TX (Sweet Eugene's if you get a chance) that when I go in, I get hit with about a thousand ideas. Find a place like that for yourself.
    
3. Set up a block of time: Can't create a studio space and can't find a place in town? Use your own living room. What? Didn't I just tell you not to do that? Yes, but this time what you're going to do is spend an hour a day practicing. Start at the same time every day. Start at the same time every day!!! Then after a few days gear up to an hour and a half, then to two hours. Then after a week or two it'll be a piece of cake to practice for an hour or two a day. 

 So there you go. No more excuses! Get out and get practicing!