Most people can’t draw.
There’s a reason why.
They have a brain virus (which is not unlike a slump).

Here’s what happens when someone asks you to draw.
Your brain runs a program.
The program says: Execute program. Draw, you silly fool, draw!
And the program starts to execute. But even as it’s executing the lines of code, it runs into a virus.

The virus crashes the program.
And you can’t draw.

A client of mine (let’s call him Jon) was on an article writing course
And he did the entire course.
But he couldn’t get down to writing an article.
So here’s what he did.
He read more on the topic.
He even did another course.

But every time Jon sits down to write, the same problem occurs.
The ‘article writing program’ kicks in.
And then the ‘virus that’s linked to the article writing program‘ kicks in.
And his ‘article writing program’ crashes.
No matter how he tries to write articles, he’s going to fail. And fail forever. (No, I’m not kidding)!

So how do yo get rid of this brain virus?
Actually you can’t.
Your brain has thousands of viruses running around. And trying to get rid of them is a waste of time.
It’s easier to write a fresh program for your brain instead.

So how do you write a fresh program?
In Jon’s case, he has to stop writing articles.
He has to do a completely different activity.
e.g. Make a movie instead.
e.g. Describe how he met his wife.

When he does this activity, the virus can’t kick in.
Because the virus is embedded in his ‘article writing‘ inability.
So now Jon’s having fun. He’s talking about how he met his wife, and how he goofed up on the first date, and how they went to the cafe down the road. And Jon doesn’t know it yet, but he’s writing an article.

The next step is to put structure to Jon’s story
Step 1: How did you run into your wife to-be?
Step 2: Where did you go for your first date?
Step 3: What were you nervous about on your first date?

When Jon answers these questions his brain is relaxed.
He’s having fun.
And he’s not accessing the ‘article writing program’ of his brain.
As we put structure into his story, he recognises that the structure is from the ‘article writing system’, but because he’s not running the exact ‘article writing program‘, the virus doesn’t kick in at all.

This means that Jon is now able to get started on a whole new program.
A program that uses new code. Plus some borrowed code from the old program.
As he advances, he’s able to learn how to write articles, even though it was an impossible task before this very moment.

In effect, he’s bypassing the brain virus.
And that’s what you have to do to learn a skill.
If you’ve struggled to learn Spanish before, you have a virus embedded in the ‘Spanish learning program’.
If you sit down and try to learn it, you’ll fail, because the virus already exists.
But if you sing a song in Spanish like: ‘Ensalada, de fruta fresca’ and see ‘fresh fruit salad’, you’ll learn Spanish while having fun.
The fun part is important, but not critical (Essentially fun only allows you to relax. Relaxing the brain is critical).

The critical part is bypassing the virus.
Albert Einstein was reputed to have once said: “You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You must learn to see the world anew.”

What he means is:
Your existing program has a virus.
You have to bypass it.
Or you’ll never really learn no matter how many times you try!

Letting someone come in to our practice space, a place that’s probably the most personal and intimate space for a musician or athlete, is already hard to do. I like this idea of a coach coming in and approaching the problem in a scientific way. When we’re given specific ways to overcome our problem, we can see ourselves out of the slump, and ultimately realize it didn’t really have anything to do with our losing our “talent” (which coincidentally can give your confidence a nose dive if you link the two together).