Dwelling On Decisions
Just because you don’t dwell on a decision doesn’t mean you’re a careless decision maker.
You can spend all day listening to snare samples for your song. But if you choose one quickly you get to spend your time and emotional and creative energy elsewhere.
Sometimes a quick decision is the most caring kind…even if, in hindsight, it wasn’t the perfect one. Not dwelling on it in the moment frees you up to get back to the important work.
Artist Staging
No one needs you to get up on stage but if you do you can give them something they need.
Most artists remain confused about this…
Most artists think they have to get up on stage. This is exactly what they were born to do. This is all they have. If they didn’t get up there the world as we know it would come to an end.
And yet in turn…most artists are pretty unclear about what exactly they offer. The desire and ego is there but also a lack of defined purpose and a strange resentment and/or fear of the power of the spotlight.
Own your decision to get on stage and do something with it on purpose.
Context and Presentation
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.
The Trusted Companion
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.
Telling vs. Explaining Jokes
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.