Mike Monday

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How Traditional Education Kills Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson is a legend in the fields of creativity, innovation and education. And while he gave this classic TED talk some time ago, it’s even more relevant now.

Why not apply some of what he says to your situation?

We Have No Idea What’s Going To Happen

Are you on your current path because you want security?

I know I was for years. But security is a mirage – because you have no idea what’s going to happen.

If you accept this, why not do that which scares you most? Because that’s often what will make you most happy.

We Are all Born with Tremendous Talents and We Are Educated Out of Them

It’s not your fault that your first thought when you get stuck is to ‘learn’ more or find out ‘how to’ do this and that. I do exactly the same.

It’s because we have been taught, some might even say indoctrinated, that one way of learning is good and that mistakes are bad.

Our endless quest for more information/tips/advice is both a safety blanket against making a mistakes (there’s that security rearing it’s ugly head again), and an excuse to avoid doing something.

It’s not that all learning is bad, but there are other equally effective ways of learning that don’t depend on someone telling you how to do it.

Let me give you an example that will make a lot of sense if you have children.

How do they learn to talk/walk/play/eat/behave when they are young? We don’t ‘teach’ them by telling them how to do it. But they still learn. How do they do that?

Our Education System was Created for the Industrial Age

The way you are conditioned to learn is often the very worst thing you can do if you want to be creative. Traditional top down education methods were devised to make you into a factory worker, not a creator.

This is one of the reasons I have such a problem with so many of the music and music production courses and ‘how to’ tutorials I see everywhere.

They do have their place, and I have no doubt that the people who create them have the very best of intentions.

But there is a reason that most of my clients who have gone on a course or who have become ‘how-to tutorial junkies’ haven’t finished anything in months (and sometimes years).

Intelligence is Diverse, Distinct and Dynamic

People are different. Different ways of learning work better for different people. But the way we are taught (and taught to learn) is the same.

The best way for any individual to achieve their potential is to find what their learning preferences are and work with them at their pace that keeps them challenged.

One to one attention, while not always practical, makes this possible.

Waste of Talent

This is the biggy.

I am now doing what I am doing because I’ve become aware of the huge and scandalous waste of talent that I see around me. And the way we are conditioned to teach and learn is making the situation worse.

It boils down to the fact that most of us have been taught what we can’t do, not what we can do.

Now I’m not arrogant enough to believe I can singlehandedly change this, but if I can help just one person use their talent, I will have done something useful.

Take Aways and To Dos

If what you are doing now is for reasons of security, think again.

You don’t have to give it up immediately, but what else can you do which will make you happy?

It might the thing you’re most scared of. But what exactly are you scared of? What’s the worst that could happen?

Is the way you are learning your craft helping or hindering you?

How much have you actually done in the past week, month or year? If the answer is solely “well I’ve learnt…”

DO SOMETHING.

TAKE ACTION.

Trust me, you’ll learn sooooo much more.

Find a mentor.

Not only will you get one on one attention from someone who is doing what you want to do, you’ll consciously and unconsciously model them, the way children do.

In my experience this method of learning is almost immediate and profound.

Start noticing what your preferences are.

Do you like learning by seeing, hearing or experiencing? Do you work best when you’re sitting down? Standing up? Moving?

Become aware of your preferences and adjusting your strategies to fit and you’ll work and learn more quickly and easily.

What CAN you do?

Have you discounted doing something just because someone told you (bear in mind that it might be you) that you can’t do it or you’re no good at it?

If you’ve got a secret desire to do something that you think you can’t, ask yourself why.

What’s your experience with learning your craft? How much has it helped or hindered you? Or do you prefer to just “do” and see what happens?

Please go ahead and share in the comments below…




Filed Under: Featured Post Tagged With: creativity, education, learning, Sir Ken Robinson, TED

Goodbye Fear, Hello Muse – Why You Should Externalize Your Creative Struggle

To your left is The Fear. This is what The Fear tells you every day:

“You’re not good enough.”

“They’ll laugh at you.”

“You’ve already done your best work.”

“You haven’t got the right tools.”

“It’s not perfect, go back and change it.”

To your right is The Muse.

She gives you ideas. But she is flighty, unpredictable and often arrives at inopportune moments. She also startles easily and deserts you at the drop of a hat. But give her enough space and she will repay you with more ideas than you’ll ever need.

Thanks to Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk on the idea of an external genius and my current favourite book Steven Pressfield’s “The War Of Art” who names his fear “Resistance”, recently I’ve experimented with externalizing my daily creative struggle.

It’s been so helpful that I had to share it with you. It’ll take a lot of pressure off your shoulders. Here’s why.

By personifying your inspiration and fear and making yourself the battleground, you’re removing the link between your work and your self-worth.

Beating yourself up for not doing enough good work is the best way of playing into The Fear’s hands and the quickest way to make The Muse run for the hills.

It’s also FUN! Let’s face it, the daily grind of creating anything can be a mundane business, and viewing your work as a struggle between the forces of darkness and light makes it a deliciously exciting prospect.

It’s certainly got me coming back for more.

Filed Under: Featured Post Tagged With: Elizabeth Gilbert, inspiration, steven pressfield, TED, the war of art

How can I help you?

Claude VonStroke (Dirty Bird, USA)

Mike Monday’s process has helped me enormously. I have two record labels, a heavy touring schedule, a wife and two children, and a music production career all running in tandem. There are times when it seems unmanageable and i get lost in a downward spiral that limits my effectiveness as a leader and my ability to be creative in the studio.

Whenever i have a session with Mike we talk it all out and a sense of calm comes over me. i get back to basics and work out all the things in my head that need to get worked out. His process is both calming and therapeutic.

I would also like to add that the additional fact that Mike is a music producer himself and a veteran DJ lends itself to an extra level of trust. I don’t think i would take advice or listen to someone in the same way who was from outside the music industry. In an nutshell I find Mike Monday’s process to be an extremely valuable way to organize and free my chaotic brain to do what it is supposed to be doing.

Johnson Peterson (Yolanda Be Cool)

“I found the time with Mike to be extremely beneficial. His process opened me up to ideas that, even where obvious, I had overlooked or forgotten and I am looking forward to taking them with me to the studio. It was definitely worth it.”

Janelle Palmer (Tutukaka Coast, New Zealand)

“What your course has done for me has been remarkable and I really feel so grateful to you…

Radical is a good word for it! The most unexpected thing I’ve found about the course is the impact it has had on other areas of my life – I was quite surprised about that…

These are definitely transferable skills we are learning here!”

– Janelle Palmer (Tutukaka Coast, New Zealand)

Brett Adams (Los Angeles, California)

“I already think this is one of the greatest decisions I’ve made, and we haven’t even started the curriculum yet.”

Vernon McCarthy (Wellington, New Zealand)

“I just felt inspired to send you a really quick message to say hello and let you know that I am going great guns at the moment.

Managing to get a average of two hours every day producing. This is a huge turn around for me and am loving it. It hasn’t been easy though but I have kept at it.

And much of it has been due to the help and inspiration from yourself, the group and me now actually putting in the work. The online community is such a good thing. Everytime I have gone to have a look I have found something relevant to my thoughts and that has helped me.”

Joe Roberts (London, UK)

“Mike has helped me to start living the truism that it’s not what you use to make music, it’s your ideas.

Those ideas only mean anything when you start putting them down though and that’s what this course has already helped me to start do regularly.

I’ve made more headway in two weeks than I’d managed in a couple of years on my own starting projects, then giving up and starting something new but never seeing them through till completion.”

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