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What’s the best way to level up the quality of your work?

Sure we want to do the best we can at everything we do, but what if we can’t reach the quality we’re striving for, to the point of giving up on a project, or maybe not starting at all? Up until the age of around 21, I was obsessed with being perfect. I wanted to be the perfect drummer, with the perfect gig, and to the extreme of wanting to be perfect going into a coffee shop, knowing where everything was and not looking like a fool!

It was exhausting and ultimately led to complete debilitation, inaction, and effectively depression. At the time I was completely obsessed with reading successful musicians’ biographies and trying to find patterns to discover the secret to being a professional drummer. The only running theme I could see was that they were all out playing, a lot, a LOT a lot.

So my focus shifted from ‘being perfect’ to just doing it a lot! Playing gigs, doing rehearsals, tours, recording sessions, stage shows, drum clinics, just anything and everything because at that point I realised quantity = quality.

Since that discovery (and putting it into action), the trajectory of my life has changed and now if I decide I want to learn something or be better at it, I just do it a LOT. And I still often surprise myself with how quickly things start progressing.

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