It’s important to take the work seriously. And the hope is that the work itself is meaningful enough to be personal too.
But when it comes to the outcomes, the reactions, the levels of success and failure, how much money is made, what opportunities come your way…
Take it seriously. Don’t take it personally.
When we take the things that we can’t control both seriously and personally it turns life into a perpetual blind folded rollercoaster ride of high highs and low lows.
Like John Lennon said…
“We were four guys, that, eh... I met Paul, said, "Do you wanna join me band?", you know, and then George joined and then Ringo joined. We were just a band who made it very, very big, that's all.”
So if all goes according to plan, the best case scenario is that you’ll get very, very big…but you’re still just a band.
Bands come and go. Bands are not a necessity although they can provide a necessity.
When a band breaks up it’s sad and then everyone moves on. The earth keeps spinning, mom is still proud, the music lives on.
The impact a band makes is always under estimated and yet self importance is often far too over blown.
The real fans don’t care if mistakes are made…but band decisions are too often dictated by not-yet-fans, fence riders or passers-by.
Bands can change the world but don’t let it go to your head. You’re just a band.
I’ve said it before and I’m sure you have too, ‘I’ll watch pretty much any music documentary, even if I don’t necessarily like the music’. Love it.
Music docs connect with a broader audience because it’s easier to identify with a movie that has ups and downs, striving toward a goal, disappointment and redemption. And in fact much of what social media has turned into for artists is simply mini versions of behind the scenes documentaries.
But what about the actual work?
It’s the actual work (the music) that has to connect in order to sell tickets, in order to make fans, in order to make a career.
So there’s the behind the scenes business and the business of songs and emotional connection.
The first one is easier and faster…but if you win that game, what have you won?
If you dig deep and deliver the songs and connect on an emotional level, the doors open.
»» Of course you need both of these worlds. The behind the scenes business is just so tempting to get lost in because of the way it connects to more people ‘even if I don’t necessarily like the music’. Make music that connects. That’s the hard part and the part that will sustain you.
Bringing your best has a ripple effect.
The more often you bring your best (and especially when you don’t feel like it) the more clearly you see the pitfalls that keep you from bringing your best and the more likely you are to hurdle them.
We all want to find ourselves in situations where what we do best is the thing that is needed most.
And the more often we are willing to bring our best, the more people will know what we are best at and our phones will ring more often with people asking us to do what we do best.
»» You don’t always bring your best. Maybe you had some bad pizza last night. Maybe the ice maker in your freezer broke again. Maybe you spent too much time scrolling. None of us bring our best all the time and perhaps it’s important to admit that first. But now, we can get better at it.
We’ve said it so many times, ‘hind sight is twenty twenty’.
And it’s true. That gap between what happened and our ability to see what was really going on is really powerful.
But being able to see clearly in retrospect should serve as a guide post and reminder that we do, in fact, have the capacity to see clearly. Even if it takes a few hours or a few weeks or years.
So maturity, in this way, is the process of bringing that time horizon closer and closer to the present moment. The process of not needing as much retrospect in order to gain clarity. And then maybe none at all.
If we can gain clarity in three hours, maybe next time it can be two hours and then one. And then eventually we can pull those higher levels of clarity into realtime.
The power and joy and excitement of putting on a great show is worth the time and energy it takes to create and put together a great show.
Great shows are supernatural and don’t happen by accident.
The best way to put on a great show is to have a great show ready to go as you’re stepping on stage.