The Acronym to Success
I'm often asked the question "How could I achieve my goals when they seem so far out of reach?" I'm here to share an acronym I've learned that if followed, is sure to bring success. Just remember CHEAP
1.Confidence2.Home3.Education4.Assertiveness5.Passion
This acronym, invented by Alan C. Fox, clearly lays out what must be understood and acted upon to achieve success. Let's start by explaining the first point.
Everyone can think of someone who radiates confidence. There is no doubt that having confidence is a necessity to success. Unfortunately (and fortunately) you need confidence to achieve success, and you need success to achieve confidence. This "chicken-and-the-egg" situation can be difficult to get out of. My main piece of advise for this is to find small victories. The overarching goal of making any great drum line can seem so daunting that confidence seems impossible. But if you can lay out lots of micro. goals that you would need to accomplish on the way to your main goal, you would create more frequent successes. These small goals could be an amount of hours you want to practice each day, or new tempos on exercises. Whatever they are the act of accomplishing them will begin a snowball effect on your confidence, slowly leading to you having confidence towards your main goal. When I was in High School I used my private lessons instructor, Jared Thomas, to validate my small goals. Every week when I went into my lesson and had something new prepared or I was able to play something that I couldn't the previous week, he would compliment me and encourage me to keep doing the same thing.
The second point is "Home". This could also be called "support". This point is split into two main parts; The first is your physical home (where you live) and the second is where you spend your day (usually school but can be other places.) You want both of these places to be as supportive and tranquil as possible. You want the people that you surround yourself with as well as the environment that you are in to be indicative of success. If you are constantly battling others negativity or you are surrounded by distractions, it will be difficult for you to achieve success.
Next is "Education". Big goals call for lots of learning, you need to be taking in as much information as possible. This can be done through a private instructor, a website, Youtube, or anywhere else that you can get your hands on good information. Follow your curiosity as much as you can!
"Assertiveness" This one can be the most difficult for some. Assertiveness means actually taking action. No amount of education, support, or confidence will get you where you want to go if you don't take action. This means constantly applying yourself towards what you need to be doing. Simply acting once will not head the results that you want. Along your path to success you are guaranteed to experience failure. But Assertiveness is your ability to get back up on that horse and continue striving towards your goals.
Lastly is "Passion". As George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel wrote, "We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion." If you do not truly love what you do, you will not be able to stand the test of time and see your dreams come to fruition.
If you understand and apply all 5 of these than success will follow!