The Short Version

If you want to get better at something, then working to improve your skill for a short time regularly can yield big results over time. Comparing yourself with others can be demoralising and counter intuitive to sucess. The real aim is to be a better you.

Going Deeper

I was driving to take my dog down to the beach for his daily walk on the Bank Holiday after New Year.

As I was driving I saw more than the usual amount of runners treading the pavements and roads trying to get in shape, I can guess what their New Year’s resolution is. I can also predict with about 99% certainty that they won’t be there next week, I’d be surprised if I ever see half of them ever again.

I know this because I’ve been one of those people. Well intentioned and hoping to get into shape. When I first considered it, I was 5 stones overweight and I needed a defibrilator to get off the sofa. I can now run 5K without thinking about it or losing breath. Most days I run 3K and walk 4K before 10am. So how did I get from being a well intentioned sofa whale to being able to achieve and sustain a good level of fitness?

Let me tell you what it wasn’t.

How NOT To Get Better

It wasn’t done comparing myself with others. Once I got into shape and could run 5K, I decided to try out Park Run. It’s a local run, based in parks all over the world where people of all abilities gather to run or walk 5K. I did a few of them but soon realised that although their theory is that it’s not a competition, it is. People run to get the best time. Some of them can do it in half the time it takes me. Rather than come home from this community event feeling inspired and motivated, I felt like a loser. Even though I had dropped 5 stones and was able to run 5K in a decent time - I still felt like a loser.

Every morning the first thing I do when I wake up is the word puzzle Wordle. If you’ve not played it you have to guess a five letter word in fewer than six guesses. I do it to keep my brain active and increase my word power, after all, I write a lot. Then I found out that one of my friends also does it. He started to send me his results and ask me what my score was… I didn’t even know there was a score. Suddenly it went from being something I loved, to something I was less interested in doing. I decided to stop talking about it and sharing my results for fear of ruining a useful and enjoyable puzzle for myself.

There’s a lot of talk in the audio world about being the best; the best producer, best engineer, the best mastering engineer, or best mixer. It seems, like as with everything else in our socially connected world, we want to turn the craft of audio engineering into a competition.

There is a place for us to be the best and that’s our best selves. My biggest opponent to a better me is me, be that in health, word puzzles, audio engineering or songwriting. My aim in many aspects of my life is to be better than I was last year, last month, last week, even yesterday.

Small Things Bring Big Changes

Anyone who reads my articles will know I’m a huge fan of James Clear, the author of the best selling book Atomic Habits, it really has been a life changer for me. The core premise of the book is that small regular habits can achieve big results. I apply this thinking to all aspects of my life. It’s what James Clear calls the science of incremental gains. Small changes making a big difference over time.

So don’t decide to mix an entire album. Start with mixing a great song, then an album, then ten… you get it?

So to run like I do now and stay in shape took small steps. First I walked to the end of the road for a few weeks. Then I ran, then I did a bit of both. Then I ran further, until I could run 5K. I didn’t run 5K on day one, but I did in year one. The blog has over 6 million visitors a year. That’s a huge number, but I’m not interested in the 6 million, I’m interested in what we do today and beating that tomorrow. I don’t know what other bloggers are doing, I don’t care, I’m not in a competition with them, just myself.

For our 8yr old daughter’s birthday we bought her a piano. We’ve found a great app called Simply Piano that teaches piano and sight reading at the same time. She’s doing it every day, each module takes about 5 minutes. I learnt music and sight reading over 40 years ago. I’ve never been very good or confident, and having left it for most of those years I’m rusty, I can just get by, but I wanted to improve. So I’ve set myself up a profile on the app and I’m doing around 10 minutes a day. Four days in and I can already see improvements, I’m better than I was yesterday and better than I was when I started. After I completed one of the modules it asked me if I wanted to join a community. I thought about Park Run and Wordle and decided to pass.

Communities have enormous power for good and can be a catalyst for growth. However, I see too many online audio communities pitting members against one another, be that about the best snare sound, the best mix contest et al. We’re turning the subjective into objective levels of competence, there isn’t, much of it is opinion and taste, or what is appropriate for the song. You don’t win a Grammy, Oscar, or Emmy by trying to beat your peers, you win one by trying to do your very best work.

How To Measure Success

There are however objective ways to measure your own success. It might be the Avid Pro Tools courses, a degree course, either at a university or with distance learning, or something as simple as an ear training app.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of these people who is averse to competition, who thinks every kid should get a ‘taking part’ medal on sports day, but in that situation we are talking about competitive sport, and there are winners and losers.

Self improvement isn’t a zero sum game. You can win without anyone else having to lose. As someone once said “when someone falls over you don’t get taller.” Self improvement is the possibility of being better today than you were yesterday. I’m a huge proponent of the 10 minute a day method, I’ve seen vast improvements accumulate over time. The greatest challenge I have is to be the ‘best’ me, comparing one’s self to others can be fruitless, there’s always someone better and worse than you, but what does that prove?

Decide on something you want to improve on this year. Find a way to challenge yourself, don’t start with ‘the 5K’, but the walk. As James Clear says; “find something you can still do on your worst days not your best.” It might be ear training, reading music, understanding electronics, acoustics, synthesis… the list is endless in the audio engineer’s tool box. Find something you can see an improvement in, small steps each day, and commit to it.

Then before you know it, you’ll be the best audio engineer you’ve ever been.

A Word About This Article

As the Experts team considered how we could better help the community, we thought that some of you are time poor and don’t have the time to read a long article or a watch a long video. In 2023 we are going to be trying out articles that have the fast takeaway right at the start and then an opportunity to go deeper if you wish. Let us know if you like this idea in the comments.

Photo by Michele Raffoni