You have decided to start teaching, students are on their way to you, so now it is time to align your mindset with your goals.

It is all about the mindset. If you want to be a professional teacher you need to think like a professional teacher. Here are three ways in which you need to level up your mindset.

1. Wrap your mind around masterful teaching
During our Book 3 training last summer Ed Kreitman exploded my previous concept of masterful teaching. I went from claiming, “I know it when I se it,” to having a detailed organized vision of mastery. He argued there are four pillars that must be mastered to be a masterful teacher.

– proficiency on your instrument
– knowledge of your sequence from start to finish
– communication with children
– communication with adults

Instead of trying to focus on the nebulous, complex skill of teaching, set your mind on improving one of these pillars at a time.

2. Think about teaching. A lot.
CEOs think about their businesses. Archaeologist think about their excavations. Video game players think about their video games. And you probably think about performing violin.

Bot now, as a teacher, you need to start thinking about teaching. Your day to day routine might not change. Still spend time in the practice room, still go to class, still watch netflix with your laptop on your stomach, but overlaying all of the action is the lens of your teaching mindset.

Ask yourself, “How is this related to my sequence?”
“Could this act as a metaphor for my students?”
“What can I improve in my playing that will inspire my students?”

3. 10X your goals, 10X your action
You only have one life, so set bigger goals. Grant Cardone, author of the 10x Rule, communicates in his book the power of exponentially increasing what you think is possible in order to do extraordinary things.

Consider how this has occurred in your performance career. In moments along your developmental path you listened to a record, or talked with a mentor, or witnessed a performance that blew your perception of impossible out of the water.

All of the sudden a whole new world of violin playing or music making was yours to enter. You didn’t improve your playing immediately but expanding your mindset was crucial to eventually improve your playing. Consider the way transferring studios or schools or orchestras change your playing. You were not just working with different faculty or conductors, but you held yourself to a new set of expectations when surrounded by greatness.

It is statistically proven that your income is an approximate average of the five people you spend the most time with. Your inner circle determines your self esteem, your attitude, your mindset, and ultimately your actions. This means your environment is going to influence your output, but if you calibrate your environment properly you will automatically upgrade your output.

So start spending time with people whose dreams are ten times yours. Seek out information and mentorship from leaders who are doing what you want to do. Allow yourself to envision what being an expert and leader in teaching would look and feel like. And then, align your actions with those expanded goals. Increase your goals by ten times, then go attack those goals with ten times your effort.

To be a teacher, upgrade your mindset in these three ways. Consider the four pillars of teaching, continually mine for teaching gems, and explode what you think possible by 10x your goals and environment.

Tomorrow I will discuss the way you use your new mindset to pick up value lessons from any observation.