Move Forward in Your Desires

I mentioned in the previous blog that a fellow musician offered to help me grow as a musician. It was a very enlightening experience. He clearly had more experience than I and was willing to share it. I am grateful for that. For him to take time out of his day to spend it with me was inspirational. I had several key takeaways from the experience.

1) We have to make the move towards those things we want. It can be a thought, a discussion, a physical act. For musicians, it is the art of practicing and performing. I'm always reminded of the Beatles who worked very hard before they made it big. They all were from working class neighborhoods, had no formal music training. They stuck to playing everyday and when they got stuck in their learning, they asked for help from other musicians. I'm also reminded of Andy Narell. I'm not as up on his background, but clearly his father laid the foundation for him to be a solid pan player. He entered into a field where he would be a minority, but it was his desire to be a solid player and his love for the pan that drove him forward. Nothing deterred him and he is now known as one of the world's premier jazz pannist. So move towards your goal!

2) Establish good habits. Focus on those things most important to you. Ignore and discard those things that don't help you or lead you away from your goals. For me, it was a recent job that sucked the life force out of me. I had no energy or desire to move forward with my own goals. I was doing something that I did not like and I felt that it started to show. So find those things that help you everyday and lead you forward. If you get a chance, you watch a steel pan group rehearse. They play songs endlessly, it is even more if they have learned the piece by rote. They never waiver. They establish good habits from the start.

3) Share your hopes and desires. You never know who'll be listening. Get your joy out there. Most people will do anything to help you. I think the universe moves to help align things to help you as well. I found it more frustrating when people didn't know what I wanted to do. I kept those desires to myself, but got nowhere. It wasn't until recently with my desire to launch a steel pan foundation that things started to move in that direction.

So, I'll keep these things in mind as I move forward with steel pan playing and the work associated with it. I will also keep it mind as we move forward to starting our steel pan organization.