Set Goals or Go Nowhere Fast

The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

– Michelangelo

In the opening scenes of Cool Runnings, we meet Derice Bannock, a top Jamaican sprinter who can think of nothing else but winning an Olympic medal. By a twist of bad luck, he trips in a qualifying race and fails to make the Jamaican Olympic sprint team. Anyone else would have quit, but to Derice this was just a setback. He had his heart set on the Olympics, even if meant forming Jamaica’s first bobsled team from a rag-tag crew of sprinters and a go-kart driver. Nevermind that they had never seen snow before.

According to respected motivational speaker Zig Ziglar only 3% of Americans actually take the time to put their goals down on paper. But how can we expect to achieve something, if we haven’t taken the time to define it. Ziglar asks how you could possibly hit a target you can’t see? “Aim for nothing, and you’ll hit it every time.”

So what are your vocal goals? Why do you want to train your voice? Do you want to audition for a musical, pursue a recording career, or sing your baby to sleep? These are all worthy goals, but the path to each may be different.

In our first assessment lesson, I will often ask a client, “What about your singing would you like to improve?” I want to know their goals. Do they want to sing with less strain? Do they want stronger high notes that don’t crack into falsetto? Ask and ye shall receive.

Develop your Talent through Discipline

Ambition by itself never gets anywhere until it forms a partnership with hard work.

– James Garfield

Much has been made of natural ability. “Does my kid have any talent?” How many hockey, baseball, or vocal coaches get cornered by a parent with this dreaded question? As if “Talent” (that mysterious gift you received at birth) plays the biggest role in determining your future success in sports, music, or life.

Probably the #1 question I get: “How can you teach someone to sing? I thought they either have it or they don’t.” Even some of my clients subconsciously believe that, especially when they hear that Joe Celebrity Singer never took a voice lesson in his life. What’s the point in practicing when you either “have it or you don’t?”

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell asks what makes a successful person? He begins this exploration by looking at the the top hockey players in the NHL and why something so arbitrary as their birth date could have something to do with their success. Statistically, 40% of all elite hockey players were born between January and March, while only 10% were born between October and December. Is there something magical or astrological about the first three months of the year that makes kids skate faster? When the Stork starts passing out talent in January, is he just bad at budgeting?

No, as it turns out, “in Canada the eligibility cutoff for age-class hockey is January 1. A boy who turns ten on January 2, then, could be playing alongside someone who doesn’t turn ten until the end of the year–and at that age, in preadolescence, a twelve-month gap in age represents and enormous difference in physical maturity.” These older kids would be a bit stronger, a bit faster, and therefore would receive more attention from coaches, not to mention more opportunities to practice and play with better teammates.

Malcolm continues “If you separate the ‘talented’ from the ‘untalented’; and if you provide the ‘talented’ with a superior experience, then you’re going to end up giving a huge advantage to that small group of people born closest to the cutoff date.”

So at least in the NHL, superior coaching, training, and practice makes the difference. And it’s the same with singing. Give me a less “talented” hard worker any day over a naturally “talented” but lazy singer. Only with practice and discipline can the voice develop and grow. Even that celebrity singer who never took voice lessons has probably spent thousands of hours practicing in their bedroom or a stinky bar to get where they are. As Erica Jong put it, “Everyone has a talent; but rare is the courage to follow the talent to the places it leads.”

Failure can be your Friend

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

– Thomas Edison, on attempting to invent the light bulb

Wanna know the definition of humiliation? Join the Jamaican bobsled team. In the beginning, Derice and his teammates were mocked by their countrymen, and to see their initial attempts at bobsledding, you could understand why. They slipped, flipped, fell, crashed…if there was a way to go downhill OTHER than upright in the sled, they did it. But they picked themselves up and tried again..and again..and again. Until they got it right.

Many of my clients are scared to make a mistake in their lessons. How embarrassing for their voice to accidentally crack or croak when trying something new? But imagine if they had that fear of failure when they first learned to walk. After one or two tumbles, the toddler would decide, “This is all too embarrassing. I’m content to go through life on all fours.”

On the path to success, making mistakes is how we discover what to do by learning what not to do. I often will ask a client to overemphasize a mistake in their vocalizing so they hear and feel what NOT to do in the future. The only way to make an unfamiliar coordination familiar is to practice, make mistakes, adjust, and improve.

The Jamaican bobsled team didn’t let the multiple failures and humiliation deter them. They had set a goal to go to the Olympics, and with discipline and practice, they made it…but I don’t wanna give away the ending.