The recital lasts four minutes. Those four minutes are the receipt for four months.

Performance is not where the work happens, it is where the work gets collected. Months of unglamorous repetition compress into a few minutes, which is why the result can feel out of proportion in both directions, thrilling or crushing. What an audience sees is a summary of practice they were never present for. The practice is the real event.

With something coming up, count back and give the preparation the weight you were about to give the day itself. Plan the weeks instead of rehearsing the nerves. Afterwards, however it goes, judge the months rather than the minutes.