What if enrichment became one of the gauges you measured success with?
What about the possibility of taking what you do, create, or provide and truly enriching lives with it?
Product and service longevity is a worthy goal, but let us not forget to monitor the depth and width of enrichment for the one’s it was created for.
Just how deep and wide can you make your music?
Answer that and demand will always exceed supply.
The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain.
-Colin Wilson, British Author
Stop.
Stop with complaining.
Stop with the coveting.
Stop believing you do not have a choice.
Stop thinking that someone else is responsible for your current course.
Stop accepting decent.
Rather, start.
Start something.
Start the pursuit of extraordinary in all things.
Start to dream.
Start to DO.
This thing is on you and your partnership with The Muse.
In-lieu of conforming start thinking differently. Sounds cliché, but give it whirl.
A mentor from afar of mine, Donald Miller, (that’s one who has written things that I’ve read and listened to, not one who actually has physically mentored me) once said: “You will either write your own story, or someone else will.”
I think the same goes for our music. We either will write it for ourselves or adopt the waltz of another’s noise.
#LTMP
Your music is yours and only yours.
The same goes for your story.
Own it.
Make it.
Create it.
Lead it.
Speak it.
Breathe it.
Live it.
Share it.
These are the things no one can take from you – AND, they are your competitive advantage as well.
This is the good news of all things entrepreneurial.
When the thought becomes physical the game has changed.
For instance when you move from “I should call that customer” to “I CALLED that customer” you just made a big leap and a push against resistance.
When you’re thinking “I think I love her/him” and then you speak out “I love her/him” – that relationship can never go back to normal.
When you move from “what if we________” to “we chose to GO this route” – now you’re pushing forward and changing things (always a good sign).
Our thoughts, dreams, and ideas are the rowdiest gifts the Muse has given us. The problem is they’re all paused until we physically do something with them.
When the thought turns physical this a quantum leap from wishing things to be done to willing them to be done.
Simply put, get your songs out of your head into a microphone.
Alas, that bird will finally fly.
“Why reinvent the wheel?”
That’s a dangerous question that typically leads to nothing, no growth, and no action.
Sure you can’t reinvent the wheel, but you can reinvent how it intersects our world and culture.
Homes will always need to be sold, but ways for that transaction to transpire will always need to be reinvented.
Communication will always be needed, but reinvent the means of communicating. (Pony Express, Postal Service, Phone, Email, Text, Twitter – what’s next?)
You can’t reinvent the concept of a hotel, but you can reinvent what an overnight stay looks like.
Travel will always need to happen, but please reinvent the way your wheel gets you traveling.
Ask yourself this daily, “if I was starting my business today what would I do/create that didn’t do when I did start my business _______ years ago? – AND, what would I do away with that I did do 10 years ago when I started my business?”
Whatever that answer is will be how you should reinvent yourself today and everyday.
Just don’t convince yourself that your wheel is as perfect as you think it is.
Ashton.Gustafson 