Things don’t run their course. The band, the relationship, the project.
We simply decide to stop putting the necessary energy into it to keep them going.
Things don’t have an inherent course of their own. And things don’t have an opinion or get tired or burnt out or lazy or lose interest or get a new dream or desire.
People do.
So when the thing is over let’s be honest about why it’s over. It isn’t the thing’s or the course’s decision.
There’s infinitely more music that is fulfilling to play and sing than there is music that is enjoyable to listen to.
That’s probably the way it should be…and it probably tells us something important about what music is for.
Music is a gift to the maker of the music. First and foremost.
Every musician has spent countless hours being deeply moved, inspired and fulfilled by music played behind their closed doors. Music and moments that no one else in the world will ever hear…or ever needs to hear. It feels amazing in the moment and that’s enough. It doesn’t need to be good enough to share with the entire world.
But if you want a career in this stuff…that’s the hard part. It feels good to play and sing but does it feel good to listen to?
Looking back it all makes sense.
Whether it’s your own life up until this point or watching a documentary about someone else’s…it all adds up.
Except…in present day you’ve got a substantial amount of confusion. Things aren’t adding up. Lots doesn’t make sense. The narrative seems lost.
But someday when you look back on today, today will all make sense too.
No need to over complicate the path forward. The next step is often times the next OBVIOUS step. It’s the step that will make sense when you look back on this confusing time.
We all have a sense of the sadness and heartbreak that exists just beneath the sunny skies of even the best artists instagram page.
It’s the dichotomy that draws us to artists. Even if it’s never explicitly spelled out.
Because whether we consider ourselves artists or not, we all know what is to express something and have it get taken the wrong way or completely crushed or ignored or laughed at.
And so artists who are out there in public putting heart and soul into the world on a regular basis…we can all sense how heart wrenching that is…and we’re drawn to the boldness of the fact that artists do it anyway.
Do you want this more than the heartbreak you’re gonna have to go through to get it?
Balancing out heartbreak with desire is the high wire act every artist (or any other type of dreamer) must walk.
And this is why is so scary to want something big…and to say it out loud. The odds, reality, norms, and some or all of your family aren’t in your favor. It’s heartbreaking. But do you want it anyway?
Here’s how you know you’re on to something scary and important…
The things that never distract you start distracting you.
You’ve got to sit down and finish writing and you find yourself enthusiastically organizing the shoes by the back door.
You’ve got to send the big invoice but you end up scrolling the social media pages of the pals from your third grade baseball team.
You’ve got to make the big phone call and realize your dishwasher doesn’t do a good enough job with the silverware and it needs to be rewashed and shined by hand.
When we’re onto something good it’s usually a little scary. When it’s scary there is part of us that wants to do anything but the scary thing. So we fill the time anything else.
The shoes and the baseball pals and the silverware will all get taken care of later.
Get back to work.