The Next Thing

I, you, we spend a lot of time rehearsing the future, scripting it, editing it, having anxiety over it, becoming afraid of it and yet prefer to wallow in the future rather than reorienting ourselves to the present.

When the future scripting gets to be too much (and it’s always too much), look right in front of you and ask what is the thing I need to complete right now…what do I need to finish?

You can’t control the future, and I dare say you can’t even control the present, but at a minimum you can DO something in the present, you can decide to take the next step even if it’s a tiny micro step. Complete it.

Reorient to the present.

Reorient to the present.

Reorient to the present.

The best work and the only work you can do is what you decide to do right now.

So what is the next thing you need to finish?

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Good/Important pt 2

Again, if you’re stuck, you might think about good vs. important…


I know a lot of people who write good, unimportant songs every day on music row. And that’s not me judging them…it’s that they’ve told me!!!

To where they get done at the end of the day knowing full well they did good work and have a good song to show for it…but the song just isn’t important to anyone or for anyone.

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There are countless albums where the fan favorite is the important song.  The one that’s not the single, it’s not the ‘best’ song on the album…it was probably the last song added to the record right at the end because the artist was finally burnt out on ‘good’ and went for ‘important’.

— 

A graphic designer, marketing team and management can slave over a tour announcement, hem and haw, phone call after phone call, font arguments, font size brawls, photoshoots and more photoshoots…all in the name of the perfect tour announcement.

But ya know what…it finally becomes infinitely more important that an imperfect announcement go out rather than delaying any longer.  Because the point is to get certain people the knowledge and sell tickets…not to one day have the tour poster hang next to the Mona Lisa.  Importance over takes good.

(*importance doesn’t negate good, but when it jumps good on the priority list, action is sooner to happen)

I hope your next thing is very good and very important.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Is This Good Enough?

Is it good enough yet? (“it” being your song, album, video, tour poster, marketing strategy, etc, etc)

That can be a pretty tough question depending on who you are, what your value system is, what the “more time/work vs. how much better it actually gets” looks like for the thing.

But here’s a question that might loosen the log jam of ‘is it good enough yet’:

Is it important enough yet?

‘Importance’ rather than ‘good’ shifts the focus form quality and correctness to impact and influence.

Is this good enough?…is a question from the head.

Is this important enough?…is a question from the heart.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

If There’s Going To Be Good Food And Drink

If there’s gonna be good food and good drink, count me (and lots of other people) in. 

Rich and not-rich people like to be able to show up without their wallet.

Rich and not-rich like to not worry about what to do for dinner.

Who do you want to get to know better?

Good food, good drink and an invitation might be all you need to offer.

Don’t know how to cook? Learn. Don’t have time to learn? Pay a friend to cook.  

And lots of great cocktails are only three ingredients, so you can look like a pro pretty easily there.

The people you want to meet and get to know better need to eat and they’d prefer to eat something good.

You can provide that and much more.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Difficult and Unknown

1. We know the outcome we desire. We know what the obstacles are going to be. It’s going to be really DIFFICULT. Let’s dive in.

2. We know the outcome we desire. We know there are going to be obstacles but we have no real idea of what they’re going to be or where they’re going to come from.  It’s going to be really UNKNOWN. Let’s dive in.

We’re really good at the first one.  If we know what we have to tackle, we’re prepared and willing to do the tackling.

The second one is debilitating. The unknown is freaky, because we just don’t know how difficult it’s going to be. We don’t know what it IS yet.

If you open this door, behind it is a pile of a thousand bricks and you have to move them across the room in 10 minutes. No problem. I will train, I will plan, I will learn and then I will open the door and win the prize.

If you open this door, behind it is a pile of something and you have to move it across the room in 10 minutes, or you lose.  For most of us, that’s a door better left closed (and we DO have a choice of which door we stand in front of and which ones we open).

Knowing what the obstacle(s) is going to be, that’s a gift.

Not knowing what the obstacles are going to be, that’s the norm.

The unknown is scarier than difficulties.

Learning to overcome obstacles is essential.

Learning to invite (rather than avoid or dismiss) the unknown is revolutionary.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Explaining Your Music

If after you explain your music to someone and breakdown the interesting personal details of why it’s good and then they respond with…

“AH HA! I get it! I’ll buy a concert ticket, a t-shirt, and vinyl versions of all your albums!!”

…you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.

It’s awesome if you can make that pitch and get that response but that means you have to build your audience one ‘explaining session’ at a time.

It’ll work a lot better if you don’t have to explain anything, if they can ‘get it’ just by listening.

So back track for a second…With the music you have right now, what added explaining  do you need to  give with it, or are tempted to give with it?  

And the obvious next question is: What do you have to change about the music to negate the need for the explaining?

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com