Well, the more 'serious' I behave or get on the ice, the more I - um, get nervous, make more mistakes, fall down, get hurt Not good at all.
So for some years, I have worked very diligently just telling myself "RELAX Annie, the ice is your play...ground remember"; and
so I allow myself to be Silly, just have fun... and giggling alot, I delight in every little move that goes better...
Last month, one of the other Adult-skaters paid me an encouraging compliment,
saying: "While we stew about this move, for that test, for yet another competition, you simply Enjoy each experience of this learning adventure Good for you!"
I think you have the right attitude here and believe me attitude is about ten times more valuable than diligence because both having a good attitude and diligently practicing will bring you to the ice, but the difference is that someone who practices without a positive spirit behind the practice isn't going to learn as fast as someone who is out there simply doing what they love and
expecting to succeed one way or another.
I have only been skating about 7 weeks now, however my coach has told me that she thinks of me as her "star student" and I know that a lot of the coaches and folks at my rink talk about me and sometimes even take the time to comment on my quick progress. I haven't been a distinctly athletic person in my entire life, but I DO have a really good attitude about skating.
Here are a few things about my thought process that serve me well:
#1 - Expect to be amazing. Even if you are only learning now, if you can find it within yourself to just assume that you are going to be awesome in the future, and that the only question is "How long" rather than "if" you will move closer to that goal faster than if you are constantly questioning yourself.
#2 - Embrace your mistakes and laugh at them. In skating you WILL fall. When you are learning a new move you WILL mess up. Everyone who has mastered the same thing has fallen and messed it up before achieving perfection, so your mistakes should NOT be actively avoided. Each time you mess up, you are given a lesson in what not to do. I tend to think of hitting the ice as a necessary step on the way to being perfect, so ya might as well hurry up and get it over with so you can move on with understanding and doing bigger and better things.
#3 - Have FUN! If you aren't doing this when you are on the ice, then it's time to sacrifice your skates to the recreation gods and ask for a new favorite hobby. No one is making you skate, and it is certainly easier to NOT skate than it is to do it. Each time you are on the ice there's got to be a part of you that remembers that you are there because you love doing it, even if whatever you are learning at the time is hard.
The one time that my progress really slowed for a week and a half was when my confidence was shaken. I kept practicing just as much as I did before, but when my confidence went poof, so too did my ability to advance. In the end, it wasn't the on-ice training that made me get back into the groove, it was the off ice steps I took to readjust my attitude.
I hope some of this helps