Getting That Parking Spot

If you want, you can go downtown right now and get a great parking spot and leave your car there for the next four months so that on New Years Eve you’ve got the absolute perfect exit strategy.

It’s going to make the next four months pretty tough on you. Walking to work or paying for Ubers or wearing out your friends for favors. But come NYE, you’ll be the talk of the party.

But we know that while you could get the perfect spot tomorrow…if you decide wait till the day of, you won’t get the perfect spot but you’ll get one that will be fine. And in turn the next four months are smooth sailing.

Sometimes we rush. We get ahead of ourselves. We live too far in anticipation instead of reality, all under the guise of being prepared.

No need to get ahead of yourself. One step at a time.

So yes, there’s nothing wrong with sacrificing the next four months to get the perfect parking spot in downtown Nashville for New Years Eve.

(But what if you end up celebrating in Cleveland?)

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Self Imposed Deadlines

“I have to get this done by Thursday.” 

“Why?” 

“Because I told myself that’s when I’m going to finish.” 

“Oh so you don’t really have to get it done by Thursday.”

The punchline here is that both of the voices are in your own head.

Being able to implement, respect and enforce your own deadlines, regardless of the absence of outside support, is a crucial factor to your road of success.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Transformation

Transformation is rarely associated with efficiency.

Transformation is rarely sped up with more effort.

Transformation comes from experience.

Transformation happens to you and within you.

Like The Wallflowers sang, ‘man I ain’t changed but I know I ain’t the same’.

I don’t have a formula, but here’s a start…

Vision, desire, action, diligence. And keep your eyes open.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

The Flailer

It’s hard to help someone and save them from drowning when they won’t stop flailing around.

No one wants to get near the flailer because it’s going to end up wearing both parties out.

It could be that you need help. It could be that you know you need help and so you’re running around as fast as you can. Flailing. Desperate. And unknowingly rejecting any possible help.

Refocus. Work your plan. Invite and accept the help you need.

How could you make it easier for people to help you?

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Mohawk

The main reason why your fans relate to you, believe you, adopt your story is because of the consistency at which you tell it.

Say you’re an artist and you get a mohawk. If you have it for one day, that’s funny and cute. If you have it for ten years it’s a different thing. Because if I go and get a mohawk too, I like knowing that we’re both walking around with the same haircut (for the same reasons). And if someone makes fun of me, I find solace that you’d be on my side.

And of course the mohawk could be anything.

Any well known band or artist became that way because of their commitment to consistency.

Lady Gaga, U2, Prince, Beyonce, Madonna, Coldplay.

»» Yes, with all of these artists we could talk about their ‘reinventions’ throughout their careers, but I think we’d find more consistency of purpose, character and spirit than we would new-ness.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

High On The Tunes

Remember when we got high on the tunes

Yeah maybe we needed the next and the new

As much as we needed to work and get better

But maybe we just loved the music so it didn’t really matter

Call it a good one, a great one, a hit

A scratch demo or version three with a little something to fix

We couldn’t believe what was coming out of the speakers

And we believed in all of our hearts that the people would see us

Playing on a stage with a million lights

With a million fans right by our side

So when the curtain went up till the curtain came down

We were high on the tunes, high on that sound

The kicks and the snares and the vocals and bass

The guitars and the synths and the verbs and delays

We were high on the tunes, we were totally gone

More days a week than we weren’t with those songs

All over the country, all over the world

Selling our stash and praying we got heard

Cause those who would listen just might hear like we did

And share in that buzz and want it again

Yeah high on the tunes because we were young

Because we were young we couldn’t know what we’d done

But held together with some songs and the truth

Remember when we got high on the tunes

»» This is certainly not my typical post. So perhaps a little look behind the curtain is in order…

As I was walking out of Ace Hardware this morning, the first line popped into my head. I had a little time to kill so I got my phone out and typed it in a note. When I got to the end of the line, the beginning of the next line came…and that’s how it went for about five minutes till I was finished. I didn’t expect it. I didn’t know what it was going to be about. I didn’t know how long or short it was going to go.

Even though I didn’t expect it, I was willing.

Even though I didn’t know what it was going to be about, the willingness and ownership caused it to quickly turn into something that matters to me.

Even though I didn’t know how long it would go, it turned out to be the proper length.

But the real key is the age old advice, just start. You can’t know what will happen after you start typing until you start typing.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple