Seeing a coach, for any reason, can feel like a big decision. It involves giving up time, energy, and money, as well as making a personal commitment to being coached. You may wonder if a coach can give you what you need. I thought the same thing before starting with my EDM music coach but have found it to have been a very great decision.
I continue to see my coach for all the same reasons we recommend seeing a psychedelic coach. This is because coaching as a modality is different from therapy or school. My coach gives me feedback, works on setting music goals, discusses workflow hacks, assigns homework, increases motivation, and provides accountability. I have found this to be essential for my continued growth and progress as a musician. These one-on-one sessions have allowed my coach to get to know me and help break through any blocks that come up for me along the way. Over time, my coach has assisted me in making small incremental steps towards my goals.
It’s important to realize, you don’t know what you don’t know! A coach will have a mastery of their profession. For me, composing music is such a wide subject with a huge depth of available knowledge, it would be hard to know where to start. An outside perspective can identify where you are lacking skills or knowledge. For instance, my coach has expanded my knowledge of rhythmic patterns and knowledge of how to use chords to compose by focusing on the fundamentals that I need. Coaches can open doors you didn’t even know existed and lead you to start mastering certain areas you didn’t even know to study. My music coach recommends specific lessons for me based on the music I bring to our sessions for us to examine. We analyze my track together and then he will point out areas where he thinks I can make improvements.
A coach is wonderful because most people don’t have someone that can prescribe them the knowledge they need at the time they need it. Our friends might give us vague feedback or advice that isn’t useful. Having an expert is really beneficial in finding out how to achieve my own level up. A coach possesses a wealth of information on a specific subject and determines what information is most applicable to accelerating your growth. This saves time while preventing overwhelm or decision paralysis from having to dig through all the information that is available on a topic. Especially in the modern age, there are so many youtube videos of questionable quality out there, it can be hard to cut through all the noise on your own.
Coaches serve to keep you accountable by checking in to make sure your task was successfully completed and answering any questions about homework or other things. They will set realistic goals and work with you to meet them. Their job is to give you skills and tools to best aid your effort when they are not around. Every session ends with a couple of homework lessons to watch during the next month and specific techniques to apply to my music. This gives me a focused path to work on during my off time between coaching sessions. Having added direction helps to focus my attention, and has been amazing for my studio time.
Additionally, coaches provide deadlines that can act as motivation, or the push to get something done. Often, I struggle to carve out time to sit down and write music. Having a specific date set with my coach provides me with the motivation to actually get into the studio and produce music to show my coach. The pressure of an upcoming coaching call can act as a hack for focusing. I often find a burst of motivation because I want to make solid music to show him during our session. I am paying money for my time with my coach which provides me motivation to put in time and effort to work on music before my coaching session.
Part of what makes long term progress achievable and repeatable is having strong, well developed habits. Using a coach consistently will cultivate and develop skillful habits over time. I see my coach every month without fail because it is where I am going to learn the most in the shortest amount of time. By continuing the cycle of being coached, sitting down to make music, then returning for my work to be criticized, I’m laying down a neurological pattern that becomes a habit of sitting down to make music. Coaching may be a catalyst but reinforcing habits is where the true value lies.
There are many reasons to consider seeing a coach. Seeking expert advice can hack the learning curve by focusing on the specific material needed for growth. Long term coaching provides extrinsic motivation and accountability when willpower is not enough alone. Over time, deliberate growth and repeating actions create a foundation for lifelong habits that perpetuate the growth-change cycle. Personally experiencing the benefits of coaching and seeing how it helps people manifest their best-self, is a few reasons why I am drawn to being a psychedelic coach.
What are you waiting for? Book a 20 Minute Intake Consultation with Altered States Integration today! Start by speaking with a live coach to find out if integration coaching is right for you. You will talk one on one with a specialist who will answer all your questions and design a custom integration plan.
PS. Shoutout to Producer Dojo (where I go for my music coaching) and Moonsplatta for the enormous amounts of musical progression I’ve achieved.