At a live show Bruno Mars (and many other artists) plays all of his songs faster than what’s on the record.
Because it’s better that way.
Because the record is for one purpose and the live show for a different purpose.
And since you never experience both at the same time you never notice. You simply enjoy.
The show doesn’t feel too fast.
The record doesn’t feel too slow.
Let context shape your presentation.
You’re not always going to feel like it.
But by now you know that’s part of the path. The not feeling like it.
It’s not about feeling, it’s about willing. Whether you feel like it or not will go back and forth, maybe even minute by minute. But willingness has the power to hold steady through it all…the trusted companion that gets you to the other side of not feeling like it.
Sometimes we want people to understand so badly that we end up spending the majority of the time explaining the joke. If they would just get it they would love it.
Taking the metaphor a few steps further…
If you have to explain the joke you need a new audience (or a new joke).
No one gets into comedy because they love explaining jokes.
All that energy going towards explaining is time that could be used for making (other) people laugh.
The people who are laughing know other people who like to laugh at similar jokes.
Admit it. You’ve thought of some song titles you’d like to pass along to Weird Al.
Don’t Stop Cashiering (encouragement for store clerks)
Man In The Freezer (a dark true crime tale)
Livin’ On A Spare (a pop music chronicle about car trouble)
And it would be pretty easy to write the lyrics to these songs.
How so? Because the melodies for these songs are ingrained in our heads. So if you were to write new lyrics to hit songs like these, your brain would automatically start generating ideas within the cadence and syllables and rhyme scheme. You get to sidestep the extra energy it takes to consider melody and lyrics at the same time.
Once you are locked into the melody (really ruminating on it and letting it sink deeper into your mind) and you know what the point of the lyrics are, you can flow. You can say what you want to say much more easily when your mind is operating from within the melody.
The ease with which we can do some creative things (i.e. come up with silly songs) gives us clues about the tools we can use for the harder work.
It’s a bit of an oxymoron. I guess it’s not a finish line if you keep going after you cross it…it’s just a line.
But anyway…
Finish lines are defined, recognizable moments of achievement. Moments worth raising your hands in celebration. We did it! We made it! This is a slice of what we always wanted!
It could be something easily measured like number of first-week streams or number of tickets sold…It could be harder to measure things like chemistry within the band, or connection with the audience in Oklahoma City.
One of the great thing about finish lines is that once you can see the finish line you get a boost. Renewed energy that seemingly comes from nowhere. A favorable wind rushing to your aid. But if you don’t make your own finish lines you’ll never feel that boost. And you’ll never get the celebration.
In the grand scheme finish lines aren’t about stopping…they are an invitation to let go of (or reframe) the pain and hardship of the latest season, and take the best parts with you to the next leg of the journey.
You have to define your finish lines. You have to recognize them when you cross them. You have to initiate the celebration. You have to have the guts to keep going.
When you’re the leader and someone brings you a complaint, a problem, an issue…it’s very likely this isn’t the first time they’ve thought about it.
And while they’re bringing it to you politely and respectfully…the day or the week before when the issue was raw they were really upset inside, it ruined an afternoon, they vented to a friend, considered speaking up, got afraid of speaking up, didn’t know what to say, hoped the problem would take care of itself. It didn’t. So the cycle repeats until now when it’s brought to you directly.
So don’t brush it off. Have the insight to know that speaking up is likely a culmination of lots of emotions, internal voices, fears, expectations and intentions.
Seeing this won’t necessarily help solve the problem but it will help give you the presence required to be effective in solving it.