Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!

Being a creative work for hire individual is challenging.

There are no rules. It’s hard to know where to turn for advice. And, if you are anything like I was when I was young chances are you are always looking for acknowledgment and acceptance.

It is natural to think you have to look outside yourself to find the answers. We are trained to research and assimilate information to improve ourselves.

But what if the answer was already inside you? What if you had to no look no further than yourself?

A byproduct of our educational experience is the pressure to conform. To be able to measure progress schools are required to judge against a norm. Unfortunately, conformity stifles creative solutions depriving us of the freedom to explore solutions that are unique to us. Schools do a terrible job at teaching students to think for themselves, to connect the dots in ways that are unique to us.

Most of us are starting life at a disadvantage. Most times we don’t know it!

Our inbred conformity works against us. If we insist on being a “part of the crowd” our value diminishes because we can easily be replaced.

What if you were to focus on what makes you different?

It’s all a choice, and it’s up to you.

Ask yourself: “how is your approach working for you?” “Are you getting to where you want to go?”

Choosing to be ordinary is up to you just as choosing to be unique is.

Committing to be unique means making a choice to stand out. It means accepting the risk of being rejected. It is a frightening thought for many. But understand that if you choose to be fit in, to be ordinary, you will be one of many. It is hard to stand out in that case.

Turn your attention inward.

Be clear about what makes your heart sing, what you can do better than anyone else.

Honestly ask yourself what YOU do, consciously and unconsciously, that prevents you from making you deliriously happy in your work.

Becoming successful requires the commitment to make the conscious choice to “follow your bliss."

Uniqueness is found inside not by the external search for validation and acceptance.

Articulate your dreams (write them down!).

Make a plan.

Work your plan

Sure. There are risks in taking a stand.

But- do you have the time to waste trying to be something your not?

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Monday Musings: Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Entrepreneurship, composing and survival.

Ever wonder why some people succeed and others don’t? In the past pathways to success were well defined and thus can be navigated. As it was when Henry Ford created the assembly line, finding your pathway to success today it is not so simple. 

Navigating through life and music can be viewed as a continual decision making process—constantly choosing between different options. But how do we determine which choice to make?

There are no rules. Most of us rely on our intuition to help guide us based upon past successes and failures thinking that what has worked in the past will work again. But what if the rules change in the middle of the game?

If our goal is stay in the game (survival) both our attitude and our perception has to change to meet the challenges as we face them. We must change our expectations and goals to stay inline with life as it is—not as it was. Why is that so difficult?

Conditioned responses are very difficult to change. The good news is that it is not impossible. The challenge is to not only be a participant in your life but also an observer. If you make the commitment to being brutally honest with yourself you can apply the problem solving skills you have developed in your creative life and intuition . Here are some steps that helped me:

     1-   Accepting that my previous life no longer exists- and to pursue the future using previous models will not move my life forward.

     2-   Doing a personal SWOT Analysis

     3-   Keeping abreast of leading trends.

     4-   Creating a strategy based on what you have learned.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

As we move away from 20^th century business practices (mass marketing, media, broadcasting) we will no longer have one or two careers in our lives. We will be forced to adapt from one career to the next as the world around us changes. Uncertainty is the new norm but it need not be overwhelming.

The good news in all of this is that the creative individual has an enormous advantage. The creative individual constantly reassesses and evaluates situations and opportunities.  Who better to define the future than the creative individual?

What is the best news?

If a strategy doesn’t work, let it go and start over. The only person holding you back is yourself.