For some reason coffee seems to be the preferred drink of acoustic guitarists. Perhaps Red Bull is for the electric guys. Where else would Dragonforce get the energy to slay ogres with their lightning-fast riffs?

Creativity and coffee have gone together from Bob Dylan and the folk scene in Greenwich Village to singer-songwriters playing in Borders…oh wait…no more Borders. But you’ll find plenty of church acoustic guitarists getting their fix at Starbucks and singer-songwriters at independent coffeehouses in the city.

Where am I going with this you ask? Hey, can’t I just have fun writing about coffee? Okay, fine I won’t waste your time. I’ll just skip right to the “now that you’re inspired, here’s the helpful message” part.

Enjoy your coffee…because it’s time to get to work.

“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”
― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Coffee is considered fuel for the work ethic as well as a social drink. Yes, even in our creative pursuits, we need a work ethic. This is why me and students are writing out goals we want to accomplish for the month.

I usually don’t follow the method book to the tee as I try to tailor each lesson to the individual’s own passions, the style or songs they want to learn. Isn’t that more work for you, Josh? Yes, but it’s worth it to see the student grow and playing music they love.

But with that freedom, goal-setting is important. Otherwise we just play when we feel like it. What about those days we don’t feel like pursuing our passions? Those are tough, but we gotta push through that, even if it’s for 5 minutes.

So here’s your assignment. Whether or not you’re one of my students or even if you pursue something other than music (you are pursuing something right?) this will help you.

• Write down your creative goals for the month. Here’s a worksheet to help you.
• Next, write out goals for each week starting with this week which would naturally lead to the results for the month. “Okay, I want to play like Joe Satriani in a month!” Yeah, good luck there buddy. Make it reasonable as in something that you’ve figured out how you’ll have the time and know-how to accomplish.
• Example: You just bought a book that shows all the steps to playing your favorite song. Pick that one song before going on to the others and write it down in your goals. That will help you stay on that song till you’ve got it down good before skipping to the others when you’ve gotten bored.
• Last of all, get a buddy. Give him a copy of the goalsheet and have him ask you about it next week.

Okay, now put on some coffee and be productive in your dreams. Stop reading this and make it happen! Go!