A question that comes to me from guitarists surprisingly often is about how to consistently finish what you start. It’s a common problem that many guitarists run into that has far greater consequences than most of them realize. 

It’s also a lot easier to solve than most of them realize… and being that it’s such common question, I figured it’s time to organize my thoughts on it and share them with you.

While this problem has a whole other side to it in the sphere of creativity, that’s not the side we’re going to be discussing today. This is all about guitar and how it applies to things like learning an entire song, a solo, a technique or even working through to the end of a video lesson. At a more “macro” level, this directly affects whether and how you follow through and achieve your overarching goals.

First and foremost, let me point out that every time you allow yourself to get into a situation where you don’t finish what you start, you run the risk of destroying your momentum and doing major damage to your personal confidence and core motivation.

If you can imagine the degree of self-confidence you earn from successfully following a challenging task to its completion, then you can easily see how the opposite effect would take hold by failing to do so.

The reason this comes up so often has very little to do with what a person is capable of and is almost exclusively the result of ignorance of one of a few key principles.

For example, it’s easy to get yourself into a situation where you’ve started something before realizing just how much work it will take to get to the end. Perhaps a great deal more work than it would take had you attempted smaller achievements first.

It may be that your interest in the particular song or technique just wasn’t strong enough to get you through to the end – but, most likely, it’s that you started on something a little too long or advanced for your current level.

By learning how to set yourself up to finish just about everything you start, you will learn how to build incredible momentum that will actually be difficult to stop once it gets going.

At this point, you will see your rate of progress grow so fast you won’t believe it.

Let’s break it down into some basic principles.

1. Choosing your battles

As the name suggests, one of the most important aspects of finishing what you start is to never start on something that you won’t be able to finish.

This may seem obvious or even ridiculous, but really take a moment to think about it.

If you start yourself out on easier to achieve goals to begin with, you won’t only be building momentum, you will be increasing your skill level at a far quicker and more consistent rate in the long run.

This in itself will allow you to take on more and more difficult challenges over time. The process will also be far more enjoyable and rewarding which will cause you to want to take on a new challenge the moment the last one is completed.

Think about that “alright, it’s finished!” moment.

After that moment, you immediately want to take on the next challenge. It feels great and reinforces the idea in your mind that you can take on anything thrown your way.

It always leaves you wanting more.

To contrast that, imagine that moment where you decide to give up on something. Maybe you simply “put it off” while knowing deep down that you’re not going to pick it up again.

Does that moment get you excited for the next challenge?

Not even close. 

In fact, it’s one of the most discouraging types of moments we can have while working on the guitar. You might even take a break from playing altogether for awhile after a moment like that. That’s hardly a way to increase your momentum.

If you consistently take on challenges that are too far beyond your current level, you will either burn yourself out or consistently quit before completing them.

While the key to momentum for guitar practice is finding the right level of challenge (as we discussed in a previous article), it’s actually a good idea to make it pretty easy on yourself at first. That way you can build momentum more freely and build certainty in your ability to stick with something to the end.

For starters, you can always set yourself to a task that you know you can complete. If you have any doubts, you can do something smaller or easier and work your way up.

Setting your own finish lines

So how do you choose the right level of challenge out of all the material you want to work with?

If there’s a song you’d like to learn or a video guitar lesson you’d like to study, you don’t have to commit yourself to getting through the entire thing right away. If your goal is to become a better player, then all of these things can be seen as tools to get you there. The trick is to use these tools in a way that makes sense for you at the time.

It won’t be the same for everyone.

Just because a song was written at a certain length or in a certain order does not mean that you have to learn it that way. The same is true of a video guitar lesson.

It’s important to figure out the best approach to take to set yourself up for success from the beginning.  It’s also equally important to start with this in mind so you don’t have to keep changing your approach.

You want to be able to follow through on exactly what you set out to do because that’s how you build both confidence in your abilities and momentum.

One way of achieving this is by breaking things up into smaller and more easily digestible sections. This can be applied to a guitar solo, an entire song or even with how you approach a video lesson.

Instead of committing yourself to learning an entire song all at once, take the first page or even just the first four bars. Make that your finish line for today: a place to get where you can stop and revel in an achievement, even if it’s just something small at first.

On the other side of the coin, you absolutely want to avoid any situation where you have to “move the finish line closer to the starting line” after you’ve already started. Even though this seems like a clever workaround, your unconscious will still see this as a failure.

If you’re unsure of where to put the “finish line” for now, just start it somewhere that is absurdly easy. You can always work your way out from there.

Once you reach one finish line, set the next one and so on. Before you know it, you’ll have an intuitive understanding of where and how to break things up and approach them.

String enough of these “finish lines” in a row and you will have learned an entire song or made your way through an entire lesson. And that is a great feeling.

Do that once and you’ll be dying to do it again… and again.

Structured goals

As always, setting and keeping track of clear goals is essential to your progress on the guitar. But goals can also be broken down into hierarchies in a way that will both keep you feeling rewarded and push you forward each day.

This is a great example of a time where you can apply what we talked about in the previous article: setting small daily goals that progressively lead you to your larger goals.

If a song your working on has a couple sections that are a little beyond your current abilities, set those sections aside for now (or even indefinitely if need be). Restructure your goals to account for it.

As an example, your goals could look something like this:

Short-term daily goal 1: Memorize and master next 4 bars of Song X (minus sections with new technique) 

Mid-term goal 1: Memorize and master Song X without new technique sections

Short-term daily goal 2: Practice the new technique and increase the speed by at least 4 BPM a day

Mid-term goal 2: Master new technique found in Song X 

Long-term goal: Memorize and master Song X with new technique

This is assuming, of course, that the song and techniques are not too far beyond your current level of playing. If you were attempting to leap forward here, a goal like this could end up taking years to complete. To build real momentum, it’s critical to be able to achieve success in the relative short term.

As a side note, if you saw the way I wrote out the goals up there and asked yourself “wait a minute, should I be writing my goals out like that?”  Then the answer is absolutely!  

Writing out your goals clearly and in order is one of the most powerful ways you can keep yourself on track and hold yourself accountable.  

I personally create a calendar out of goals and use tally marks to indicate the work done that day. I also take advantage of to-do lists with boxes to check.  There are a million good ways to do it.  Find the way that works best for you and you can’t go wrong.  

Remember, we’re shooting for daily achievement and momentum. Structuring goals in such a way that guarantees daily achievement is a key aspect to getting into the habit of finishing what you start.

Even if the goals are short and relatively easy to achieve at first, they can still be greatly rewarding. The more you do this, the more confident you will be in your ability to finish what you started.  Before you know it, you’ll be in the habit of finishing everything that you set out on…

…and you will be amazed at how this affects your progress.

We’ve focused quite a bit on goals lately, so it may be time to get into another subject.  Stay tuned for next week where we will talk about just how fast you should play.

Ready for that next challenge?  Check out my massive catalog of guitar related products, covering everything from Metal versions of Classical pieces, Neo-Classical Shred technique, Sweep Picking, and more!   See what’s on sale today at the link below:

www.Sellfy.com/DanMumm

Dan Mumm