Wednesday, December 12, 2007
nashville
Seven years. Good friends. Good debt. Heartaching. Love making. And now today. I wake up every morning in a city that has more opportunity than 80% of the rest of the world... and yet, I find a reason to make excuses for why I'm 25 and still designing websites for a living. Don't get me wrong. I totally subscribe to "40 is the new 20", but there is such a pressure in this newly rebirthing industry to hit it and hit it young. I feel as if I missed the deadline before I even knew there was one. I'm still growing. I'm still writing better... every day. But when is it gonna be good 'enough'. Never. I have so many talented friends that will never see the light they're hoping for. What makes me more worth the success? *sigh* I'm gonna got with "I want it more" even though I know it's not true. But I need something to remind me that there's a reason I'm doing this. Sometimes "because I love it" is just on the fence.
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I remember struggling in college as to WHY I would pursue music as a career path, which is seemingly wrought with risk, luck, and many disappointments along the way. And why I felt compelled to choose this over a more traditional or understood profession.
I voiced my concerns to one of my roommates at the time who was a brilliant physics major and also a very competent blues guitarist. He immediately dismissed my concerns and got me thinking about my choice in a way that helped me realize that the creation of music (and the arts in general, for that matter) is one of the most important things we can do as human beings on the face of this earth! Let me explain...
Every single one of us has the ability within us to create something of great beauty or creativity. We are, after all, children of THE most innovative and awe inspiring creator of everything that we know and love on this planet, and all creations are destined to mimic their creator.
When you step back and assess what the absolute most important and memorable things that we value in this short period of time on earth are, I guarantee you're not going to come up with understanding the markets, home ownership, corporate strategy, government regulations, paying taxes, budgeting, fiscal responsibility or anything else that seems to be what they teach us to perfect through our schooling years. Instead, you'll come up with things like watching a child's expression as they learn something new for the very first time, inadvertently seeing the most beautiful sunset you've ever seen, hearing a song that stirs your heart and makes the hair stand up on your arms, witnessing someone unselfishly sacrifice their own desires for another person or laughing so hard at milk gushes out of your nose.
The pursuit of creation alone, despite our perceived success within the confines of the monetization of the creative industry, is taking taking part of something that is so much larger than ALL of us and a reflection of what we all have in common given to us by our creator.
I cannot convey to you how much it breaks my heart to see not just the music industry acting as a "gatekeeper" to creativity but our culture as a whole places more value on the pursuit of those things that don't really stir us down to our sole. Just look at the funding practices of our school systems and you'll regularly see music and arts programs being put on the back burner.
While I understand this may not be very encouraging when you're just trying to figure out how to make a living doing what you love (believe me you're not alone!), I do just want to encourage you to NEVER stop pursuing and creating no matter the outcome. There is no age cap to creativity. Remember Michelangelo was in his 60's when he painted Sistine Chapel.
To a practical level though, I just finished reading a book called, "The Monk and the Riddle" by Randy Komisar that I highly recommend. My friend Sam Davidson just did a good review of that book HERE. The basic gist is to focus on living the life you are meant to live NOW (the whole life plan) versus putting it off for later (the deferred life plan).
As you well know, I'm not quite there yet either but I just want to encourage you to stick with it and let you know that you're not alone. Only good things can come from pursuing what your truly passionate about, even though in comparison to someone else's journey it may not look the same.
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