Commitment II

The best musical goals are moderate—challenging but realistic— but your commitment moderates this relationship. When commitment is high, highly-difficult goals are associated with the best results. Commitment doesn’t matter as much with easy goals. You don’t get high performance with easy goals, regardless of your commitment level. But commitment has an increasingly greater effect on performance as the task difficulty increases. 

So, goal setting alone isn’t sufficient. Commitment influences the results, and this is because of our tendency to want to escape the unpleasant experiences that occur with goal difficulty. Commitment seems to buffer the discomfort, allowing us to feel uncomfortable and persevere anyway. 

Only quality practice achieves excellence on the stage. For this reason, it is commitment to practice that I look for most in my students. But what are the factors that contribute to this commitment? 

Enjoyment and participation in ensemble performance are strong predictors of increased commitment. The more fun you are having and the more benefits you perceive you’re getting, the more committed you are likely to be. 

Having attractive alternatives to your activity significantly predicts less commitment. In other words, commitment is stronger when you have fewer options to choose from. For example, many children are involved in multiple sport, drama, dance and other after school activities each week. The chance of them becoming an expert in any one of these activities is significantly less than the child who specialises in one thing; learning a musical instrument for example. 

Personal investments and perceived costs also significantly affect commitment. Personal investments are factors such as time, effort, and energy that you put into your practise that would be lost if you discontinued it. The more you invest, the more committed you are to continue. Perceived costs are the downsides of practise and performing, such as time constraints, injury, missing out on social activities, and the pressures of exams or auditions. Focussing on such problems may well undermine commitment. 

In weighing up the personal investments and perceived costs in your own musical life, try not to over think it. Faith is important too. It is perhaps the most important thing of all. Believing wholeheartedly in your eventual success is an option always available to you. But don't wait to have faith; live it now, 

Questions to Consider: 

How does acceptance enhance commitment? You may wish to refer to my blog called 'Acceptance.'

Can a musician be overly committed?