Call It A Plan

By Miles Patrick Yohnke

© 2018 All Rights Reserved.

Zakk Wylde (left) and Sean Francis.

zakkwylde.com

The main theme of this article if you will, deals with the field of music, though the contents can be applied to any field of work or profession.

- Miles Patrick Yohnke

Through a system of repetitions, one can achieve an end goal that displays brilliantly but oddly appears to be without effort.

Through the course of civilization, we have been told to have a plan and put that plan into action. It is the foundation for success. Though in musical rehearsals, practicing this formula is rarely talked about.

Before we explore this, I'd like to take you into the philosophies of the professional gym, including what is found at Iron Works Gym in Saskatoon, the one I attend.

All the pros keep a journal. Everything they do is documented. The area of the body (muscles) worked, the number of sets, reps, and weights. They aren't blindly going in and lifting weights. Everything has a structure. Each session is focused on something. One example: shoulders (front, middle, rear delts). They have a plan for each day. Everything is mapped out. Developed and structured ahead of time.

A lot of visualization goes on as well. Not just between the sets of reps but the night before. They visualize the room, the machines that they'll be working on. They put themselves into the scenes; visualize it all out.

The pros are very dialed in. A lot of silence occurs between sets--almost a form of meditation. You wouldn't think a place like this would be a spiritual outing. But it is very spiritual.

To maximize your band rehearsal and your own personal sessions, purchase a large chalkboard and also each member should buy their own personal journal.

Sean Francis photo by Shaun Salen

Having a chalkboard up in your rehearsal space will help with the structure of it. Brainstorm with your bandmates on what you want to do. One idea is you can have an area of it as the set(s) and another area as the songs you are going to work on that day. Another part for documenting an area of the song.

This is the same with your own personal journal. You will document your parts of the song. One example: you play at the front of the note. You document all your weaknesses and too, ideas to spice up a part - an example of this is an interesting hi-hat fill in a section. Have your own personal plan, visualize and work that plan in your own personal sessions. Write down the ideas and inspiration that will carry you from where you are to where you want to be.

John Urbano, age 40, 2022

Take notes to deepen every facet of your life. My dear friend, John Urbano also suggests emotional entries. This is a powerful way to keep track of your emotional state when you start your gym session, your band rehearsal and or your day, and keeping track of it, analyzing self, at the end of your rehearsal, gym session, and day..

Your journals are a gathering place for all the valuable information that you will find. Shape your potential for success and achievement in life. The awakened life is the same as a conscious awareness of an incomparable and undivided presence.

Your future must be planned, well designed, to exert a force that pulls you towards the promise of what can be. Act on your plan. Successful people do all the things unsuccessful people do not want to do. They simply do it. They take the action required.

The Zen of now. Practice living in the present moment. Through a course of repetition of visualizations, practice and structure, one can unveil their true beauty to others.

The amazing possibilities that appear with each present moment are literally within you.

Don't call it a dream. Call it a plan.

Left to right: Jeff Fabb, Sean Francis, Randy VanAddison, and John (JD) Deservio. Photograph by Jenn Diehl for Ensoul Imagery.

Sean Francis is Miles Patrick Yohnke's personal trainer and co-founder of The Haunted North