Daily Loops

If you take a few minutes to think about the things that are new to your daily loop over the last year or two (or ten), it will remind you that you can add or remove things to/from your daily loop.

Here’s a few to get you going…

Fifty pushups

Writing a two sentence note to your spouse

Flossing

Taking a deep, thankful breath as you walk out the door to work

House shoes

Music while making dinner

Lighting a candle after dinner

Writing down a good idea

No more fried food

Phones stay out of the bedroom

Speaking with a friend on the phone

Moisturizing

Our days are fairly predictable. It’s why the most common answer to “what’s new” is “not much”. We do a lot of the same stuff over and over. So pick some stuff you like. Pick some stuff that makes a change.

You’ve added stuff before. You’ve dropped stuff before.

You can do it again.

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Garbage Time

Digging in your garbage isn’t fun and it’s definitely not something you want to do all the time.

But sometimes you threw away something six months ago that, now, is really useful.

Metaphorically speaking.

Your old ideas for taking over the world, your old demos, voice memos, journals, lyric notes on your phone…all that you threw in the metaphorical trash months and years ago. It’s probably still a lot of trash, but there’s no way you have a perfect track record of only discarding the exact things that need to be discarded. Odds are you threw away some good stuff too.

If you haven’t in a while, maybe it’s garbage time.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

When It's Easier To Like The Music

It’s funny how when I know the artist it’s easier to like their music.

It’s why meetings work.

It’s why Instagram and SnapChat work.

It’s why media tours work.

It’s why Behind The Music and behind the scenes works.

It’s why playing live and meet and greets work.

It’s why your mom and dad like your music so much.

But remember, like the opening line says, it only makes it easier. And easier is great…but it’s certainly not for sure.

So where do you prioritize your focus?

Perhaps the best option (as the artist) is to simply make better music.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

John Lennon and Me

I came to the difficult conclusion many years ago that John Lennon and I probably wouldn’t have been friends.

I’m sure we would have been cordial and respectful upon meeting and during subsequent encounters…but I’ve read enough interviews, seen enough video and read enough Beatle books to know that on most matters we just wouldn’t have lined up to be pals.

Strawberry Fields, yes. Love Me Do, yes. In My Life, yes. I could keep going…

So I made peace with what I look to him for and what I do not. It’s worked out for me.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Being In It

Being in it. Finding that emotional, spiritual, physical connection to the music and thereby creating the best chance for the audience to latch on and go for the ride.

And it while can’t be achieved or found every night, the best way to cause it to happen more often is to want to be “in it” and then to keep finding ways to get there.

But the truth is artists don’t always want to be in it. It’s really tough to make the effort.

Show number one is really easy and probably the next ten or twenty or fifty are easy too. But show 250 headlining in suburban Delaware, show 542 on a random Tuesday in central New Mexico, show 1007 at a corporate event…it’s hard to be in it, but before that, hard to even WANT to be in it.

It’s hard to want to be in it enough to give the effort it takes to find a way back into the music.

And even when you have the desire, put in the effort, reconnect with the music, put your best foot forward, you might not get the result or response you hoped for. The amount of effort doesn’t guarantee the outcome.

So if the outcome isn’t guaranteed, is all that trouble worth it?

There was a tag line Gatorade used years ago ‘Whatever you do to get up for the game, stay up’.

I’ll make it a worse slogan but a better idea: ‘You have to want to get up for the game if you’re going to have a shot at consistently being up for the games. If you want to get up for the game, the method by which that happens is something that you’re going to have to find again and again…and that’s the only way to stay up’.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Speaking Up And Getting Better

A good way to get good at speaking up is to first be bad at speaking up. It’s not by keeping to yourself until you get good.

Too often in this business (and perhaps yours too) it’s become commonplace to not say anything in the moment but then tell your other buddy afterwards what you wish you would have said or what was going through your head or how you really feel. And then maybe confront the initial conversation via email or text message.

Speak up. In the moment. Out loud. You might be bad at it at first. Say you’re sorry. Maintain humility. Keep speaking up. You will get better and more articulate which will help you do it more and become more effective.

»» Also active listening helps…cause if you’ve been speaking up a little bit all along you’re more likely to speak up a little more.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple