Beware of your greatest strengths!

Shakespeare is quoted as saying “your greatest strength begets your greatest weakness”.

As performers, one of our most valuable strengths is our skill in self-critiquing. We are highly trained in the ability to judge and evaluate every aspect of our playing from second to second, and this skill is vital for our ongoing development. 

However this very same strength has the potential to be our greatest weakness. As we constantly focus on and evaluate what is wrong or what needs to improve, we can very easily lose sight of what is also working well.

Ask any performer walking off stage or out of a practise session how it just went, and they can easily rattle off a list of the things that weren’t so good or didn’t work as well as they wanted. On the other hand, they’ll probably have much more trouble rattling off a list of things that were successful.

Our greatest strength becomes our greatest weakness – disproportionately focusing on what needs to improve, forgetting to acknowledge what is already working well.

Over time, this approach slowly undermines our confidence and enjoyment, and we lose the ability to robustly back ourselves.

“Use it, or lose it”

Just like a muscle that needs to be exercised to build strength and resilience, we must ‘practise’ self-support and acknowledgement of the positive in order to build the ability to support ourselves effectively.

Without this vital positive reinforcement our confidence eventually withers away, just like an unused muscle wastes away. Before you know it your whole performance persona is undermined.

Practising the ability to observe success

When you first start to consciously practise the skill of observing success, it’s highly likely that it won’t come easily.

Like a muscle that hasn’t been used for some time, it will initially be weak. You need to simply start using it and slowly build it’s strength with consistent use over time.

Practising awareness of the positive over and over again, you’ll build a strong new habit of self-support that will eventually become a fully integrated part of your successful and enjoyable performing process.

Try this:

Each time you notice a self-critical thought/something that is wrong/something you want to change, consciously acknowledge and celebrate your awareness of that thought.

• Awareness is key for self-improvement, so positively acknowledge (and perhaps even smile) every time you are aware of your inner critic piping up.
• Being aware of your thoughts around what you want to change is something to celebrate. These moments of awareness hold great power for change.

Then, aim to find positive and successful elements in equal parts.

• Initially, you may think there will not be enough (or any) successful elements to acknowledge, but this is your over-active self-critical voice kicking into action.
• Simply start acknowledging the positives, no matter how small.
• Practising the acknowledgement of the positive over and over is key – just as you have practised the awareness of what needs to change over and over again.
• With time and practice acknowledging the positive in equal parts to the negative, this more healthy and supportive process will eventually become second nature.

Make sure to also keep noticing what you are enjoying. With this sort of practice you will begin to experience even more enjoyment and connection to the fun and fulfilment possible from joyful creative performance.