Build a woodshed in your mind
Woodshedding
A term commonly used by musicians to mean rehearsing a difficult passage repeatedly until it can be performed flawlessly. The term is used metaphorically where "the woodshed" means any private place to practice without being heard by anyone else. This is based on the assumption that an actual woodshed would likely be in a remote location, away from the main house
Sonny Rollins
In 1959, Sonny Rollins took a 3-year hiatus from public performance. He was already considered a jazz pioneer. He had already played at Carnegie Hall. Success had come quick for the young saxophonist, but he was unsatisfied with his musicianship, so he took the most famous sabbatical in the history of jazz.
From 1959-1961, Rollins walked up to the the Williamsburg Bridge, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, to practice his craft. You can’t play saxophone in a New York apartment for very long before they throw you out, and there aren’t many woodsheds in The Big Apple, so Sonny practiced at the bridge, by the subway tracks. Hot, cold, rainy, snowy—the weather didn’t matter. Rollins was up there, every day, for 15 or 16 hours. You can almost see the steam drifting up through the manhole covers.
What was he doing? He was woodshedding. He had built a woodshed in his mind—a place where the distractions of life are minimized and true focus can be attained.
What came of it? A masterpiece. Rollins’ next album, The Bridge, is widely considered one of the greatest jazz albums of all time. Certainly one of my favorites. Give it a listen during your next training session.
The Bridge
Sonny Rollins is not the only person to have benefited from the ascetic notion of going to The Woodshed. The history of humankind is rife with stories of women and men enduring periods of intense focus and relative seclusion in order to achieve something that would have otherwise been impossible. What can we learn from them? What does it have to do with training?
I’ve worked with hundreds of clients, and I’ve seen more compromises made than I can count. Most of the time, I tell people that compromise is just fine. Training is supposed to enhance your life, not become your life. And that’s true. Most of the time, we should not let “perfect” be the enemy of “good.”
But what if, for a period of time, you were to build a woodshed in your mind? What might happen if you made zero excuses for 4 weeks? 8 weeks? 12 weeks? Longer? At the end of that timeline, what future version of your Self might be standing there waiting?
Below is your woodshed checklist. Modify the list to suit your own goals if you must, but remember one thing: be ruthless. Going to The Woodshed is about sacrifice for a greater goal, so make sure to sacrifice something. I am not asking you to permanently set up residence here. I am suggesting that you take a sabbatical from your excuses to make room for the greatness of your potential.
1. Do your training exactly as planned.
How many days per week do you plan to train? Schedule these sessions on your calendar just like you would any other appointment that you cannot miss. Do your training on set days of the week, at set times—no fiddling with the schedule to accommodate anything less than an abject emergency. During training, set your phone to do not disturb. If anything comes up right before or during training that might derail the plan: the answer is no—it can wait until you are done.
2. Cook your own food.
If you don’t know how to cook, learn. Cooking is humankind’s most functional art form, and there is great pleasure to be had in learning to create beautiful things from humble sources. If you don’t have time to cook every night, prepare your food for the week on Sunday and save yourself the hours and stress during the week. If you don’t like eating leftovers, get over it. You can learn to live with less.
3. Get 7500 steps per day.
Walking is the original human exercise, and most of us need to do it more often. 10,000 steps per day is the popular number, but it turns out that was just a marketing coincidence (the Japanese word for 10,000 happens to rhyme with the name of the pedometer manufacturer who popularized the notion). 10,000 steps (or more) is great, but 7,500 is the minimum number to maximize the health benefits of walking. If you get home from work and you are short of your step goal—go on a walk. If it’s really cold outside, put on a coat.
4. Limit alcohol intake.
No more than 3 drinks in one night. No more than 3 nights per week—preferably not the night before training. If this is a difficult rule for you to follow, abstain from alcohol altogether while you are in The Woodshed. I like good bourbon a bit more than I should, so no alcohol for me. If this is a change for you, then you can expect to enjoy vastly better performance, recovery, sleep and mood.
5. Wake up and go to bed at the same time each day.
Part of the idea with going to The Woodshed is that you are practicing the habit of getting “the little things” right. Starting and ending your day at the same times, with the same rituals, will help reinforce the habits you are trying to build. Set your alarm to go off at the same time every day, and don’t hit snooze when it goes off—get up! Set a bed time reminder, too, and don’t skip it to watch one more episode of any of the worthless TV shows that inundate our lives.
6. Get real about your recovery.
Breathing exercises, mobility exercises, relaxation techniques, sleep—since you are reading this on a computer screen, I already know that you need all of these things. This is a huge topic, and I will be releasing much more information on this in the near future. In the meantime, here are some thoughts: Be aware of your breath—slow it down and focus on it; be aware of the tension in your body—if something is tight, stretch it. Spend some time getting relaxed before you go to sleep at night—no electronics unless it’s an audiobook. Finally—sleep for 8 hours.
7. Silence notifications.
If your phone is constantly buzzing, alerting you of social media updates, news, sports scores, emails, etc, then you are doing it wrong. Your phone should never have the ability to interrupt what you are currently doing. You should be the one who decides to check the phone, and it should not be every 5 minutes. I am not old yet, but I am old enough to remember The Time Before Smart Phones. Back then, I could practice guitar or read or think for hours without being interrupted by anyone or anything. Those days are not gone, but they are hidden. Take them back—put your cellphone on silent and turn off all social media notifications. Within two weeks you will forget that social media exists, because…it is of very little value.
8. While you are at work, work. When you are not at work, don’t work.
When I was 10 years old, I heard Billy Corgan sing “The world is a vampire.” At the time, I wasn’t sure what he meant. Now I know. I love my job, and I hope you love yours, too, but it’s worth admitting that work is the most notorious of all vampires. So here is my suggestion—while you are at work, work! Work your ass off. Don’t get distracted on your phone. Don’t waste a bunch of time chit-chatting. When the work day is done, turn it off—no more email, no more work. Go live the other half of your life.
9. Practice being uncomfortable.
Why is our modern life swaddled in comfort that borders on opulence? The answer to that question (because somebody figured out how to sell it to you) is for another time, but the solution is quite simple—embrace your innate toughness. A simple way to do it: cold showers. Start your shower as normal, with hot water. Suds up your hair and your body as normal. When it is time to rinse off the suds, turn the water to the very coldest setting on the knob. Now that the water is cold, rinse yourself off. Do not flex your muscles or gasp about the cold water or try to rinse off faster in order to escape. Instead, remind yourself that the cold water does not matter. It will not hurt you. Keep your mind and body relaxed until you are done. When you shut the water off, take a moment to appreciate the warmth of your temperature-controlled home.
10. Get outside at least once a week.
I’m not talking about having a cigar on your porch. I am talking about planning an outdoor day every weekend, regardless of the weather. Skiing, hiking, climbing, camping—all of these are fine options. Keep your cellphone in do not disturb mode, and no headphones! Listen to the wind in the trees, or the silence that a snowfall provides, or the wild ramblings of your own mind. Think about your breath. Think about the countless humans who have walked the hills of Earth before. You descend from an incredible lineage of hunters and explorers, and this time outside is your most powerful weapon against your domestication.
Don’t bother dreaming up excuses about why you can’t do this. You are stronger than the algorithm wants you to think you are. Believe it. Walk away from some of the bullshit, just like Sonny Rollins did.
See what happens.