A big part of keeping your word is keeping track of your word.
‘I’ll give you a call this week.’
‘I’ll check out your song.’
‘I’ll connect you with so-and-so’
It’s easy and fun to say things like this…and easy to forget to follow through.
It’s more likely we’ll keep our word if we care as much for the person we’re saying it to as we do about the emotional pop we get from saying it in the first place.
When we ask the question, ‘Did we do a good job?’, it’s retrospective.
And it’s usually the completion of a task or project that triggers the look back to survey the quality of the work.
The problem most artists run into is that their career is viewed as one long open ended undertaking. There are rarely points of completion along the way that bring up, ‘Did we do a good job?’
But maybe that could change. Maybe you could start looking at your career as a rolling series of projects. Projects that have a beginning and end. Projects that can be learned from and moved on from.
If we want to do better next time we need to be clear about how we did this time…Did we do a good job?
You don’t get great things in large quantities.
They come in small quantities.
So if you’re wanting more greatness, more great material, more magic moments…the only way is to keep going, to keep working.
Related to this…
The burning desire to keep working is often a byproduct of discomfort. When you’re uncomfortable, you’re willing to work really hard to get comfortable.
So then the hard won comfort (and success) actually becomes a block to being willing to do the hard work necessary to keep generating great stuff over the long term.
If you want to keep making great work…keep discomfort around, keep doing the work.
If you’re going to be in the business of making lemonade out of the lemons given to you, you better have a steady supply of lemons.
Some people are great at making the best of the situation…and some people are great at serving up situations. i.e. The typical artist and manager relationship.
The lemon grower and lemonade maker need each other.
The best way to prepare for opportunity is to have the song.
You’re constantly hoping for the opportunity. And along the way you’re going to get the opportunity.
If you get the opportunity and you have the song, it’s going to go well.
If you get the opportunity and you don’t have the song, you’ll wonder why it didn’t go well.
And the truth is…everyone hopes you’ll have the song but doesn’t actually think you will. It’s why when you do, the gates open. You’re giving them what the hoped for while at the same time surpassing expectation.
Spend time writing.