THE POWER OF 1% WINS: THE 3 MINUTE RULE
‘Don’t break the chain. Your only job is to not to break the chain!’ These are not the words of a drummer, but of comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Asked how he works on his craft, he says he writes at least one joke a day, every day. Even if he doesn’t feel like it, even if he feels extremely unfunny. Never missing a day creates a streak of momentum, like building links to a chain. The job is not to come up with brilliance every day, or to carve out a huge amount of practice time, or to be perfect; the job is just to be consistent, to not break the chain.
There is great power in consistency and habit. This is the big secret to greatness and genius, not the myth of talent. Work on your craft every day. The name ‘3 Minute Rule’ comes from what I tell myself when I don’t feel like practicing: ‘I will at least play for 3 minutes, I can do that…’. The goal is to not miss an opportunity to connect with your instrument, tapping into the mighty ‘why’ of what drives you to hit things in the first place to let it guide you, however briefly.
Perhaps you’ve been to the Grand Canyon. The awesome shaping and sculpting of the massive rocks and canyons was done by a substance seemingly as weak as water. But done consistently, one drop at a time over millions of years … the result takes your breath away! And the same will happen with you. Your individual expression you must take shape one day at a time. Not ‘every now and then’, and not ‘when I feel like it.’
What if you were able to reach one straight year of playing every day, but at the very least for 3 minutes? Here lies the force of momentum, which comes from hardwiring a habit. Willpower doesn’t work, but habits and rituals do. This way, practice becomes an addiction, not an affliction. Fire up your nervous system through drumming, and the connection between body, mind, and instrument becomes stronger each and every time. The most common excuse of not practicing is, you guessing it … ‘I don’t have enough.. TIME!’ But the 3 Minute Rule cuts through the excuses, because everyone can find 3 minutes. Now we’ve beaten the RESISTANCE we all have to stay where it’s safe, that inner voice that tells you to relax and to ‘do it tomorrow’. We all know we need more than 3 minutes behind the kit (that’s not even a full song!), but if that’s all you got in on your worst day, then at least you’ve mastered your actions and connected with your instrument instead of missing yet another day. You’ve kept the coals of consistency burning, and you’ve pushed that next domino forward to keep and build your momentum. And I’m betting once you’ve got the sticks in your hands with your butt on your throne, through the magic of movement, you won’t want to stop.
“Put your ass where your heart wants to be.” Steven Pressfield
You’ve heard ‘the hardest part of working out is getting to the gym’. The 3 Minute Rule to train yourself by tricking yourself by getting your butt onto that drum throne. Doing a small act every day without fail creates massive momentum that can shatter your ceiling of achievement, of what you previously thought possible within yourself. I want to see and hear more of YOU on your instrument, and we get there through the reps. Your unique voice on the drums only begins to shine through the reps. You’ve now created a habit that silences the master excuse writer inside your mind. You’re now riding the wave of momentum, so remember: DON’T BREAK THE CHAIN!
