Not Everything Happens for a Reason

We all know the age old story of the tortoise and the hare. How slow and steady wins the race and how overconfidence can bite us in the butt if we let it get the best of us. The story is so old we roll our eyes because of course everyone wants to be the turtle, just like everyone wants to be the ant in the story of the grasshopper and the ant.

Fables are passed down over the years because stories make great tools for learning lessons. Characterizing a human with an animal gives flight to the imagination and removes all perception of ‘what is’ and makes one reflect inward.

It has been 10 years since I first stepped on a stage, started recording, singing publicly and in the studio, touring, and being an active member of the music community. In those 10 years, countless of names have popped up and fallen away.

Some names have gotten bigger and bigger and bigger while some simply disappeared.

Let me preface this by saying I do not compare myself with others and tho goals I set for myself will be different than those of someone else for themselves. There are a few things though that I have found have helped my career progress in the way I wanted it to. I’ve developed ways of maneuvering through the loopholes and barbwire of simple existence as an artist. It’s a proverbial meditation process so I can cut through the bullshit and focus on what matters.

Which brings me to my first point exactly.

Focus on what matters

Sometimes I refer to it as being lucid, or watching lucidly and that is my first and foremost meditation practice slash survival measure in being an artist. When you focus on what matters, everything else takes less precedence therefore the bullshit-o-meter goes down. Your internal voice might say, “But that is selfish!”

Why? Because you are choosing to set a goal, put blinders on and go after it?

Doesn’t mean you won’t help your fellow man along the way but if your dream is to find yourself on a certain label, don’t spend your days chasing down the 10 you don’t care about. Go after the ONE. Go after what you want.

Do you have all the hours in the day to please everyone as well as chase a few of your own illustrious dreams in the meantime? Here is your daily does of cynicism: you can’t do it all. I’m sorry if I hurt your superhero feelings.

Take a moment, let it process and then tell yourself it is ok to focus on the most, THE MOST important things because sadly, there are only so many hours in a day, so much creation to be tapped and so much passion to be shared.

There is no Plan B

An NHL hockey player was interviewed once (I think the article was about Sidney Crosby, I’m trying to find it and will hyperlink) and the interviewer said, “Did you know you would be part of the NHL?” and his response was, “There was no other option. i didn’t think of what things would be like if I didn’t make it, in my head, I was always going to be part of the NHL”

Obviously I paraphrased this but seriously, this is what I read in one of my motivational reads. I am not an avid hockey fan, I will admit, but I study the habits of successful people.

When I started thinking like this, that there is no Plan B, it made me put all my effort into whatever I was doing. Because failure is not an option. Well, no failure is an illusion and unhealthy which I will address next but this ‘eyes on the prize’ #tigerblood mentality… Go get the gazelle!

There is no Plan B.

Track down what you want, get your sights set on it, put on the blinders and go.for.it.

Failing is healthy

Countless famous people have recounted their stories of failure from Walt Disney to Einstein to The Beatles. Critics on the sidelines were afraid of a new flavour and wanted to stick with the predictable. Or maybe some dreams are just to grandiose for some to understand. Too, it is unfair to think that others care as much about our passions and aspirations as we do so maybe it was a classic case of not giving a rat’s ass in the stories of our artist and inventor forefathers.

First of all, let’s take the negativity out of the word fail. Let’s consider it an opportunity. Gimme a second here, trust me.

It is impossible that the first step you took as a baby that you really knew what you were doing. you took a chance. There is a possibility you fell a time or two after that. What about swimming? If you learned to swim and are reading this, you didn’t drown but probably got water up your nose. So that is life, people. Trial and error. But by putting the two first steps into play, by focusing on what really matters and still continuously going after it, you can stay on track moving towards your desired results.

It is ok to fail.

You cannot grow if you do not fail and you will stay in the little leagues.

The goal makes it happen

How candid a life it would be believing that everything happens for a reason and that the good things that come to some is happenstance as in parallel to the bad that happens to some. It suggests we are ruled by a destiny we have no control over.

I call bullshit.

No. Not everything happens for a reason by chance.

Sometimes the reason in question is actually a well organized goal with an orchestrated plan in place, measured to achieve maximum success. Often the reason people succeed and others don’t is just how they approach what they want in life. Some passively pace around waiting for things to fall their way and then some voraciously go after life like it’s their last meal.

It is proven time and time again that working in conjunction with your goals or in Conversations with the Universe leeds to greater accomplishment. I didn’t make this stuff up. Magnets and physics and the Law of Attraction and stuff…

How can you not reach a goal if you have focused on:

• what’s important?
• there is no Plan B and you’re working full steam ahead?
• you accept that failure will happen but it is part of growth?
• working wholeheartedly with the wheels you put in motion?

There are tried and tested ways people have achieved their goals and the internet is littered with inspirational stories. Be it weight loss or training for marathons to raising money for charity, even if it is simple as just putting your own life in order, everything is a step by step process.

When I was young, my mind was utterly chaotic and the older I get, the more I appreciate writing things down on white boards and in notepads, calendars, wherever. Lists, I write lists of lists. Mental and virtual.

Everything gets done if you approach things one thing at a time. By decreasing the clutter in your life, you diminish stress as well as increase chances of reaping the rewards of focused direction by finding the success you worked for.

The tortoise had it all right. And the ant too.

Slow and steady wins the race.

There will be a million and one shortcuts in life that promise the moon and stars but the one thing you can can count on is the road of self-directed perseverance, determination and passion.