Rebecca Gilliver, principal cellist of the London Symphony Orchestra tells the story of a conversation she had with Sandro Laffrancini, principal cellist at La Scala about a particularly challenging top shift he played flawlessly over and over again in her LSO Master Class for the Cello. She asked what his secret was and he said that he simply thinks about something else right before he has to play the shift.
Whenever you face that which you consider “hard” or technically challenging, you are wise to remember this advice. Whether it is a closing sequence in the sales setting, your opening line when making small talk at a cocktail party or the point in any activity in which you tend to disconnect yourself from the perfectly flowing execution, a careful analysis of the background factors will typically reveal an unnecessary and unhelpful inner tension with respect to it.
This unrelieved tension may be held physically, mentally, emotionally or in a particular (and eventually patterned) combination of all three. If you play back a recording of yourself in that moment you’ll likely notice that you are breathing in or worse, holding your breath. There may be other signs of physiological constriction and if you could see your thoughts or emotional state you would see a similar crystallization or bunching up of that which should be fluid, effortless and smooth.
Much of this unnecessary and unhelpful tension is caused by bad mental habits.
To continue the musical analogy, the mind plays an important role in practice. It allows you to gather and perfect, over time, the fundamental, individual building blocks of virtuosity.
Your mind in this sense is like the power transmission lines that criss-cross the country. It is not the power; it is simply the vehicle through which the power of electricity is carried. At a certain point you have to let your mind come to rest in relation to the task at hand so that the currents of inspiration and creative outpouring can move through the vehicle that is your mind, body and heart in its present configuration.
The mind, however, can be a little tyrant if you let it. It can try to take over the process, rule where it does not have authority and assert itself in areas in ways that restrict the flow of inspiration, imagination and genius instead of releasing it. Authority, wrongly asserted, invariably disrupts more than it facilitates.
To put it bluntly, there are times where your mind needs to learn to mind its own business!
And Laffrancini’s little trick is one way to dethrone the tyrant so that room can be made for the rightful flow of perfect expression in anything you wish to master in life.
Gregory Hake 
This is great advice. I find it especially relevant to speaking in settings where each person has a chance to present themselves. I find it an art to be able to listen to each person fully and intently especially the person preceding me. And as soon as I have spoken to fully let go of what I have said to be able to listen to the next person. So often there is a constraction that occurs when it comes to presenting ourselves that no one really can hear another. Your words open up a field where a communion can actually occur offering an influence of genuineness into the world.
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It always amazes me how easy it is for us to get in our own way. I am of the opinion that most people understand fundamentally what they should be doing , yet how many self-made obstacles keep us from even our simple goals? I really appreciate stories like this, because you see that even the most successful people have to deal with the same obstacles as everyone else. The difference is that they learn to negate either the creation of new obstacles or the effects of existing ones.
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Great post, Gregg. I have the experience that something has shifted in your recent posts. There’s a new elevation in power.
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Your sales analogy is appreciated here Gregg, and your reference to flow is as well. In the sales process, we note that usually the salesperson gives a great presentation but when it comes to asking for the order they freeze. And that usually happens because the rep’s mind starts getting involved and conjures up all kinds of (false) objections or reasons as to why the sale might not be made. On the flip side, when their mind continues to allow the flow to take place, actually to finish, than a sale is made with ease and all are happy. And what is it that usually wanders into the mind? Fear, thinking of oneself, etc.
It is so interesting the way that this happens.
How to overcome or work with this is the question then isn’t it! This requires diligence and patience, and tons of practice. And I have found that one can never take the development of these skills for granted – they need to continue to be honed and finely tuned.
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We’ve all watched great athletes miss a normally easy task because they seemingly “choked” with the tension on them in that moment. It’s amazing to see how the mind can distort even visual observations. It can be the loose cannon that sinks the ship if it isn’t controlled or the brilliance that brings the answers when it is. Great point.
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Having used this tactic a great many times in painting, it’s a point used to convey to others just exactly how one does it all freehand…..simply put….
Relax.
If I’m holding my breath I stop, for that tension in the moment is not conducive to productivity, especially when a straight line is imperative (more often than not!). Looking forward to parlaying this into other area’s living today!
Thanks for connecting this!
Love the breath out, rather than in, part!
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Absolutely! One of the things that is good to remember related to whatever skill you have (art, sports, music), is that as you practice and master your craft, it begins to become a part of you. If you trust this, you will find that as you relax and let it flow, the more “unconscious” aspect of that skill will naturally flow through you without your mind having to reconstruct the mechanics of it each time. When this occurs, your heart and mind are then free to flow in the moment while your body responds and will know exactly where to throw the ball, what strings to pluck or where to place the brush.
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Great post! The tyrant runs amuck when we think more about ourselvse than we do others. Appreciating the one or ones about to receive the current released from my mind, body, and heart …..dethrones the tyrant.
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Great post – love the power line analogy!
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