In our current popular culture of creation, many pundits often extol to the virtues of making more and more content all of the time, or about making things as big and ornate as possible in order to break through in the market. I've done so myself in the past and sometimes still do fall prey to this kind of thinking. Every time that I catch myself doing so, I take a deep breath and pull back. Then, I go Gordon Ramsay on it's ass.
If you've ever watched "Kitchen Nightmares" or "Nightmare Kitchens", both starring three Michelin star winning chef Gordon Ramsay, you might have some idea of what I'm talking about. In each episode, Ramsay is confronted with a failing restaurant. When tasked with saving the business, one of the first things he does in almost every single episode is to cut down the menu to a very small and incredibly high quality few recipes. These restaurants, the ones that are failing miserably I mean, all seem to be trapped in the maze of menu expansion, many with thirty plus dishes coming out of the kitchen on any given night. By cutting everything down to ten absolutely solid meals, Chef Ramsay is able to bring into focus what is scattered. He's saying "Here are these ten things..now let's do them better than anybody else." While I'm using food here, this is, like many things I talk about on this show, completely applicable to all forms of art or creativity. Cut things down to their most condensed form. What is the project really about? What is it's species? What is it's genre? Execute to the highest extent of your ability on less things. Because if you do, those fewer things will count a whole hell of a lot more than a million half baked limps across the finish line. Remember the goal here is to make something worthy of attention. Ingenuity and execution is what earns it.
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I was born into a family of musicians. My mother and father met in music school, she an Irish Catholic pianist and music education major and he a rebellious guitarist with Italian roots. As it says in the bible they begot me, then my brother David, and then, fourteen years after I was born, my brother James. All of us went on to use music as one of our main vocations in life.
Of course, because of my time spent with other musicians, I naturally gravitated to them socially. Most of my friends have always been in bands, been playing out, chasing the next big opportunity. Along with having the musician life in common, they also had something else in common..they were all broke. It's a struggle to try and make it in the music business..as long as you are doing what every one else is doing. The good news is that most people are doing very, very ineffective and stupid things. There are many different ways into making a living from music and only a few of them require you to become some sort of pop star. Sure, that appears to be a glamorous avenue, but there is a lot of smoke and mirrors involved in that perception. There is a lot to it. On the other sides of the industry, we see composers (who as one of the top ten jobs in terms of growth since 2008, boasts thousands of potential jobs), to songwriters, producers, music teachers, worship leaders, band leaders, side musicians, and so on. The music industry is a vast and wide ranging one. The issue isn't that we CAN'T make a living in music. It's often times that we don't make the right choices and follow through in ways that create those opportunities for us. We don't hone the craft until we can professionally execute and then study the market, making adjustments and growing where we need to in order to make it happen for ourselves. Those who have dug into the industry know, it's about much more than your ability, which definitely matters. It's also about the intangibles - how well you get along with people, if you are reliable, if you are committed and willing to make something happen. These things matter. So, to reiterate: If you want to make money in music, you must train for it, you must learn about it, and you must put what you learn into practice. In other words, you must commit to it. One last thought around this concept: If you look at the truly successful musical artists over time, you'll see that very few of them actually made their money off of the music. Sure, the music got them the attention. It positioned them in the minds of the audience in a way that made it easier to sell something to them. How did they make their money, then? Merchandise. T-shirts, posters..and in Dr. Dre's case...Dre Beats headphones. While I've used the world of music to illustrate this point, it easily can be adapted to fit literally any market. How did George Lucas make most of his money off Star Wars? Was it ticket sales? Of course not. It was the toys, the merchandising. In fact, do movie theaters even really make money of the box office receipts? No. Those go to the film distributors and studios. They make their money off of concessions and other value added services. Get the idea? Consider this in your own career. How can you use your art to gain the attention that then allows you to sell some adjoining line of products or services? It is very much a worthwhile line of questioning, even if you are just posing the idea of a career as a hypothetical. Throughout my life, I have always felt the need to justify my decisions to others. I guess it's the performer in me, always looking to gauge audience reaction before making the next move. It's not that dictated everything, but rather that they provided some external point of context.
However, I've realized since that this has been a mistake. Too often, it has effected my decision making process negatively, leading me down the path of least resistance, essentially the path most traveled. This has ultimately led to frustration and a begrudging acceptance of things as they are for the "normal person". Recently, I have felt more and more of the pull towards pushing out of this box and into a life that has called to me for so long. Whether it's been cowardice causing hesitation, distraction, or otherwise, I've become aware of the clock ticking and the creep of darkness on the edges of my life. Soon it might too late. It's driven me to unravel the reasons for my hesitation in order to free myself from the bonds of it. Through this search, I've come across a myriad of intriguing and useful mindsets and mental frames, many of which I'll be sharing here over the next few weeks and months. However, one the first that I believe bears deep consideration is the need the justify wanting something. When you say the word "because..", you instantly begin to degrade the call to adventure. Why justify? Why not have wanting it be enough? In the end, wanting something is about seeing a more compelling future ahead of you than the status quo. By desiring something, you don't owe an explanation, but rather conscious action to make it reality. Consider this in your own life. When we feel the need to justify, we start thinking like a PR department, considering how others will "take" what we desire. While I personally don't believe in hurting others if at all possible, why not see "wanting" something as enough to investigate what it would take? That's the very least you owe yourself. Stop worrying. Stop justifying. Just want what you want. Without apology. When my friends and I first discovered music, we didn't fall into the category of people who began playing guitar to get a girl's attention. Instead, we were trying to find an access point, a way to channel things that were vague, yet powerful, hard to fathom, like the vastness of the sea in the middle of night. We could feel then what all humans inevitably feel. That there is something wrong, even though we might not know what it is.
As we grew up, we learned about love, lust, guilt, loyalty, betrayal, shame, rage, and joy. All powerful cocktails of emotion that played no small part in forging who we became. Among the thousands of hours spent trying to find our way into music, there would occasionally come a moment when the tones we produced found an echo chamber in our souls and connected our emotions to a public address system. This is when I first felt truly alive. One thing that really resonated from this transcendent experience was that, whatever the emotion we began the music evoking, once we hit the vein of connection, it meta-morph into a type of euphoric joy. It didn't matter where it started, but that type of ecstatic state always became the goal. They were prayers, these songs. The honest and heartfelt prayers I could ever imagine. Once I found that, I began to see it in all of the greatest artist's work. Mozart, Michelangelo, Beethoven, Poe, Dickinson, DaVinci, Frost - list all of the masters in history and you'll find it in their work. In seeing this, the truth was opened up to me. Any strong emotion, connected with transcendent art, becomes a catalyst for the ultimate experience of being human. It was the muck and the mud and the shit come divine purpose, the perfect 'Christ being born in a stable' explanation if I've ever heard one. Take this into consideration as you create your art. We are magicians and shamans, conjuring transcendence and the ecstatic experience. We connect our audience with the most true essence of themselves and allow them to experience the spectrum of deep emotions. In the end, that's why they show up. Because we get them to feel something. It reminds me of the (likely incorrect quote) "Science, medicine, and engineering help us sustain life. But art, beauty, and love are the reason that we live." One of the hardest things I have ever had to figure out as a creative person is how to keep myself from pushing myself past the the breaking point. For many years, I would always go hard on a project just a bit too long, eventually hitting a wall where my body would break down. I would get sick or in a few cases get admitted to the hospital for sudden serious health issues. As you can imagine, this began to make me feel a bit hesitant to take on goals that seemed a bit too audacious. But then, in the fall of 2012, I was hired to ghostwrite a book a relaxation. In the process of researching the subject matter, I began to find some basic concepts that I have since used to make all of the difference in my life. Since I know that many other creative people seem to struggle with the same issue, here are the top ____ things that I use to help me relax after a long day of creative work. In order: 1) Create a ritual Probably THE most powerful tactic that I utilize to promote relaxation is in having a consistent ritual. I know, I know..those are for children aren't they? Actually, it turns out the answer is "No". They are for all of us and it works with our biology. Make an effort to go through the same set of behaviors each evening before going to bed at roughly the same time each night, combined with a routine wake up time and morning routine, and you'll start noticing massive changes in how you feel day to day. For instance, one week days, I regularly begin readying for bed around 9:00 pm, hitting lights out by around 9:30 in order to wake at the ungodly hour of 4:30 am. Occasionally, I shift the times a bit, but I always keep the same ratios. This helps my body to normalize into downshifting the phase at night. 2) Warm water bath or shower While I tried one extreme to another in my quest for relaxation, one tried and true basic that I eventually returned to was a warm bath or shower before bed. I keep lights low and stay in a quiet, meditative state while showering or bathing for 5-10 minutes. I attempt to do this when I know that I won't speak or communicate with anyone until the next day and always do it around the same time. 3) Light Stretching (or Foam Rolling) After the warm soak, I then dress for bed and take about 10 to 15 minutes to stretch, doing light a light yoga routine or using a foam roller or lacrosse ball to release some of the tight muscles (usually in the legs) that have formed over the day. This has several benefits. 1) It feels amazing to release muscular tension and it releases endorphins that help the descent into sleep all the easier and 2) it helps trigger your body's parasympathetic nervous system, which calms you and allows a more meditative state. 4) Meditation It's likely that you've heard about meditation more and more as it's grown in mainstream popularity. There's a reason why it has: it works. It helps to train the mind to be less reactive, lessens stress and anxiety, and helps give the brain a "warm bath" that allows it to function at a higher level more consistently. Personally, I opt for 10 minutes once or twice a day via the Calm app, although there are other great options out there. I do a session each morning while waking up and one before bed. I find that it cuts down on my "problem solving" mindset when I try to sleep. 5) Deep Breathing Breath work is one of the newest things that I have begun to use as part of my nightly (and morning ritual). Of course you can do this exercise on your own, but I personally use an app called "Apnea Trainer", which essentially has me breathing in the following pattern. Breathe in: 5 seconds Hold breath: 20 seconds Breathe out: 10 seconds * Times are variable and are set on a person by person basis. But, keep the ratios between the numbers the same, as in (x1, x4, x2). I do the above routine for about 5-8 minutes while laying in bed. It has the effect of slowing me down even further and makes remembering to turn off my bedside lamp hard some times. 6) Sleep Induction Mat Of all the methods I have listed here, this one tends to earn me the most sideways glances from my friends. Essentially, a sleep induction mat is a small mat with small plastic spikes on top. I place the mat on my bed and lay down, shirt off (although you will likely want to start with your shirt on until you acclimate). The mat has the effect of calming me down (think a great back scratch) and releases many of the trigger points in my back, if I stay on for more than about five minutes. For me, I choose to go through the above mentioned breathing exercises until I find it hard to keep my eyes open. Then, I slide the mat out from underneath me, turn off my lamp, and am out like a light. No matter how you cut it, we all need to rest and we all need to sleep. This is what I do, but I am interested to hear what works for you. Also, if you try any of what I've talked about here, let me know how it has effected this very important area of all our lives. Rest easy, everyone. I am tired today. The first week back in the classroom after a lengthy break has both the children and myself feeling both anxious and drained at the same time. While driving through Denver tonight, I thought about what might be useful to write about.
In front of me, the railway crossing alarm began to sound and I was forced to stop as a train passed by. Rolling down the window, I heard the screeching of the train as it slid along the rail. Then, it occurred to me. I would talk about good and evil. Make no mistake, we do live in a world of good and evil, with many shades of grey in between. The current zeitgeist does often suggest that all talk of this apparent duality is basically subjective, unless it confirms with whatever line of thinking the person judging you might subscribe to. This gets recursive very quickly, as you can see. It's just my opinion, but to me it is impossible to read about the painfully horrific ravaging of young women under ISIL rule and not see true evil at work. There are many other places where the same conclusion can be drawn and I need not list them all, but you get the idea. Also, I have seen real, selfless good put into the world. In my experience, it is actually far more common than the evil and is generally quiet and less assuming. But it is there all the same. Every day we are bombarded by a news media that attempts to raise the alarm of a war of ideology on the brink of being lost. Each article is a call to arms and violence is in the air. Sometimes, it's hard just to put our heads down and get through it. But what if we pulled back, way back, and saw things from a different angle? As our world and our Universe seems to be made of matter consistently moving through the processes of creation and destruction, peace and violence, tension and release, maybe we should ask ourselves what we are truly looking for. What is it that we truly wish to see instead of the latest media horror show? Is it peace? The data supporting inflammatory journalism very distinctly shows that we are enamored by and drawn in by such media. Maybe we don't like peace as much as we say. What about the food you eat:? You know, the kind that you promised that you wouldn't eat when you said that you wanted to eat better.. If you are like the vast majority of us, the list goes on and on.. Here's an idea.. Instead of hoping for things to get better, dreaming that others will somehow fix our problems, whether we created them or not, why don't we focus on learning to master ourselves? Much like walking, which, if you really think about it, is basically falling forward until your leg catches you, pole vaulting you into the next fall forward, life generally beats us down or scares us into a sort of subconscious submission. We listen to the news, we feel tired and afraid. We buy things to comfort ourselves and live the cycle over and over again. If you think about it, we are basically going through life, from collapse of power to collapse of power, hoping that someone else has a plan..and then..we die. That's the end of the story. But when you focus on mastering yourself, you start becoming conscious and aware of what you both perceive and react to in the world. You become more and more to become still and see the periods of violence and peace, tension and release. You can see the larger picture and then, if you do it long enough, you may begin to find something that resembles freedom of heart. This one is for the poets, the writers, the musicians, the filmmakers, the actors, the dreamers...for anyone who has dreams of making a living in a competitive creative industry.
Let's all be really honest for a moment. Chances are, there are a lot of people trying to achieve the same thing that you are. Have you ever spent time in LA and ever casually asked someone else if they had a script? If you live or have ever lived in LA, you know the answer...everyone has one. Everyone wants to be a screenwriter, a movie star, a pop icon, the next Hans Zimmer... It's a crowded parking lot. Many of your competition are quite talented, aren't they? They are smart, capable, and are trying to beat you out for prized opportunities. It can be pretty damned intimidating.. So, what can we do as creatives to set ourselves apart from the rest? One word with a big definition: Work. Let me explain. For the purpose of clarity, let's take the popular dream of wanting to become a professional screenwriter, which, as I've mentioned earlier, is a very competitive industry. It goes like this: Everyone has an idea for a movie., yet small percentage of the would be population actually start, let alone finish putting it to paper. Of those that do, only a few will take the time to truly understand the craft of screenwriting, taking the time to think through what they are creating in it's fullness. Of that group, only a small percentage of them will write multiple drafts, get feedback, and hone the script into a tightly constructed film. Of the people who actually complete such a step, only a very small percentage of them repeat the same process on new ideas, writing script after script until their own true voice emerges. In that group, there are many who are content to just write and will never also make the effort to go to where the action is, like industry gatherings, submitting to contests, etc. While that still leaves competition out there and doesn't by any means guarantee you a multi-millionaire making career, it does give you something that many in these kinds of industries don't actually often slow down to get. Real clarity into what it takes. Doing the work means starting at the bottom and learning, doing the dirty work, applying consistent effort over a long period of time. For the first few years, people will usually politely brush you off. But something strange happens after you enter year three. People start to take you more seriously. They start realizing that you're here to stay and that you are deeply committed to the work. As the months and years and projects go on, you will find yourself slowly growing in the capability and community that you sought at the beginning. However, you will now be confident and competent in the execution of your craft. At that moment, very special opportunities seem to magically reveal themselves. Only now, you are prepared to meet the new adventure head on as you continue to grow. So, to quickly reiterate: How do you set yourself apart in a vastly competitive industry? You get to fucking work. You have been lied to.
Your parents did it. Your teachers did it. Your friends do it. Your romantic partners did it to. Your TV definitely lied to you. Most of them didn't mean to do it. They were just regurgitating what they had been told about the way to world works. Well, all except for the TV. That's the best place to start here. It's constantly pushed on us that the goals of our existence is to "live up to our potential". To somehow prove to everyone how awesome we really are by making a lot of money, or by owning the coolest, newest thing on the block. It's called several things in marketing, but it's mostly related to the concepts of scarcity and status. If something is seen as being relatively scare and is perceived as being something fancy and or exiting, it conveys status. It lets others know that there is something special and unique about you. That's really what most of this about, isn't it? The might say that we don't care what other people think, but the reality is the we care far more than we realize, don't we? In fact, one of the more interesting concepts in recent psychology points to the idea that we don't see ourselves as we see ourselves, or as other people see us. We perceive ourselves as we think that others perceive us. And how can get some sort of a reference point as to how others might see us? By looking at our culture and seeing what others seem to value. This is why people worry about their physical appearance, what kind of car they drive, where they live, what kind of job they have..and list goes on and on. Social media has made the issue even worse, with each person acting as their own public relations department, spinning the perfect story to send out to the world about who they want to be seen as. Even more daunting is the reality that many of our industries are designed to keep even those making great livings (financially) on the brink of bankruptcy. So, even the achievement of the goal isn't a guarantee of happiness. But here's the rub: The vast majority of people never find fulfillment chasing the favor of others. For many, it feels like a creeping dread that always lingers just on the boarders of our minds, until we are laying awake at 3 am, and panic sets in. Many of us know that there is something wrong and then, we begin to consciously or subconsciously blame ourselves. We start to think that somehow, we're just not "enough" to meet the standards of this world. That we were somehow born defective and aren't able to keep up with everyone else. But the truth is, you aren't defective. You aren't less than you need to be. You are more than enough. You were just taught to play the wrong game. The promises of this world (wealth, admiration, status) are like a beautiful apple that, once you bite into it, turns to ash within your mouth. It is illusion. It is folly. And the more we grasp longingly for it, the further away it becomes. That is because we are measuring ourselves by other's demand for results. What if instead, we took a moment and tried to remove those goals from our mind, along with all associations tied to them. What would you do, if you were coming from your deepest self? What if we, if we have to judge ourselves at all, were to judge ourselves based on not our achieved results, but by our ability to create the conditions that allows us to take advantage of the frequent opportunities that come into our path? Why not consider what you wish to experience in life, then go about fulfilling the prerequisite actions needed while placing yourself in the way of possible opportunity? This is definitely a different method than crushing a new goal. But it is, in my humble opinion, far more powerful and a much more real way to live. It allows the Universe to line up for you and allows you to live a truly authentic life, as unique and individual as you are. P.S. This is a very large subject, which I will be delving into quite deeply in the very near future. If you feel this is a bit..incomplete, stay tuned. It will become more and more fleshed out as the year goes on. Yesterday, I wrote about remembering who you were as an artist, as a creative, as a person, before the "real world" came in and convinced you to buy into it's own values. In my mind, it is absolutely imperative to be able to do this in order to produce that which is most native to ourselves, the most inherent to our own nature. It's a pathway to creating true art.
But then, at this moment where we, where our art is the most precocious and self involved, another element has the opportunity to be introduced. Doing it for money. Is it possible to cradle our art, giving it the love and attention it deserves while releasing it into the cold, uncaring world of commerce? The answer...yes. And a bit of a "no". Commerce usually demands creating "for" something and basically being able to do so on command. This, in it'self can become a task, requiring the creative person to be primed and ready at a moments notice to do our best work. Also, we are expected to be open to, even enthusiastic about other's opinions about what we should create. At first, this threw me. My precious little world of beautiful little preciousness was being imposed upon.. But then I snapped out it. I realized that, for the vast majority of the creative geniuses in our modern culture and in our storied past all created for benefactors..basically for money. Hell, even Beethoven - one of the very first composers to demand being freelance, took commissions. He didn't do to badly for himself either. The point is that there has to be a balance, and it's all predicated on how you both approach your life and your work. An artist needs to be ready to do their best work at a moment's notice? Then you, the artist, had better find ways to keep yourself always interested, always inspired in some way or the other to be primed for such work. Such is the mark of the truly world class. Worried about having to collaborate? Have some faith in your own abilities as a person and allow your ego (sometimes disguised as the "purity" of the art) do let go, in order to allow something new and different to come into existence. Your art can be pure and unadulterated. But it's private, like your relationship with your body. Then, you must push it out into the world, where it's relationships form what it will become. Such is the nature of art and the nature of life. This is a story about how I lost my mind.
I have, over the period of my life, had many brushes with madness. The edge has been balanced upon too many times to count, and I'm sure not for the last time. However, the madness to which I refer to here was of a more insidious, subtle nature. But even more interestingly, it is a common one, held by millions upon millions of others. It's possible that you might resonate with this. As I was growing up, the concept of stardom was somehow intrinsically tied to the idea of being an artist. Being a musician was great, but it was really a step on the way to becoming a rock star. Being a filmmaker was cool, but you, everybody told you, would be the next Spielberg. Growing up in a family of musicians, the art was always put first, but my extended family, teachers, and the culture in general was giving me another message. And so I began to believe it. Each song began to envisioned as being played in front of thousands of people, each film concept had to be of Oscar contender quality. It's hard to really unpack how much this actually effected my work and my life, because it happened in very subtle ways. Songs would be shelved because they weren't "good enough", film scripts were hidden away because they weren't of Oscar caliber quality in my mind. Without realizing it, I had put another "God" ahead of my art. That God's name was "Fame". Now, all of these years later, I've played in front of thousands and felt rush. I even get referred to as "famous" by some, although I personally find it a bit funny. At the end of everything, I've found that for me, an audience is a privilege, one that you earn by serving and giving more than you take. Those nights on stage, playing to thousands? They were great fun. But you know what I always loved more? Quietly going back to my room, pulling out my guitar and finding a new melody. To me, that's where the God of my youth lives. In the quiet moments, when the line between myself and the art speaking through me is the least visible. The madness that I gave into for so many years was the insanity of thinking that it wasn't enough to be myself without fame or what is known as material success. Of not thinking that my art was enough if thousands weren't queuing to buy tickets. Those were false idols and it's taken me years to see how misleading such thoughts really are. It's not easy, and I can't say that I'm fully out of the woods in this. But I'm working every day to remove these ego based needs and to become the man I was born to be. I hope that you'll join me in such an endeavor. |