At some point you will have done your very best work.
And chances are that point will be before your final breath.
Which means that when you’ve done your best work, you’re going to keep going. And when you keep going, that work isn’t going to be your best work.
So it’s worth asking the question now…why are you working?
When I was a kid walking through Guitar Center I remembered everything I saw. The makes, models, colors, finishes, years, styles, everything.
Whereas my mom or dad or whoever brought me did not.
We saw all the same stuff and spent just as much time at the store. So what’s the difference?
I wanted to remember. I HAD TO remember. It was important and valuable to me. I loved retaining that knowledge. It made me cooler around the people I thought were cool.
You remember because you want to. Not you want to want to. If you truly care and believe it’s important and valuable, you can’t help but remember.
The work is the set of problems.
It’s pretty easy to like the fun parts of any job or project. So the differentiator is the problems associated with the job or project. Do you like solving this set of problems or would you prefer a different set?
The problems aren’t going away but you most likely have the power to trade one set for another.
If you like the work, aka if you like solving these types of problems…that’s the unique element, the unfair advantage you’ll carry with you as you grow and make change you seek to make.
Everyone who buys an expensive ticket to see the big artist coming through town agrees that the artist should get a bunch of money.
So if you think you should be making more money, you need more people who think the same as you do.
A great way to get people to think the same as you is to be giving them something worth more than what they’re paying.
Any party. Make one up. Pick an existing holiday. A historical event. A pop culture event. The changing of the seasons. The 99th day of the year. Lots of people. Or just a handful. At your house or at a venue or a park or an exotic location.
Just pick a party and have it every year.
Become known as the people who have the ______ party.
The party I have suggested to many artists is to have an annual Grammy party. Not one where you fly out to the show or even watch the show or do anything having to do with the Grammy’s. But a party that looks like this…If we would have won a Grammy (for example) this year we would have thrown a big party and invited and thanked everyone who works with us, our families, our close friends, a time filled with gratitude…so while we didn’t win the award we’re having the party anyway.
And do it again the next year…
It all starts with a little commitment.
Actually, I guess it starts before that. Before the first traces of commitment you have a completely wide open landscape, the whole world is at your fingertips, an infinite number of choices.
But it turns out we’re not very good at having the world at our fingertips. Boundary-less framework is pretty tough to build on.
So it takes a seed of commitment. Cause after that, the next part doesn’t have to come out of nowhere…it’s simply an extension of what’s already been committed to.
When you sit down to write a song, there’s too many options to stay in that limitless space for very long. So then you commit to starting with a C chord or to 105bpm or to a catchy phrase. Ok now we start building.
Commitment narrows the available choices and gives the endeavor an identity.