Reverb 10 Prompt (from Scott Belsky): When it comes to aspirations, its not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. What’s your next step?
Ah yes. Action. Where the rubber meets the road. Gittin’ er dun. Walkin’ the talk. Okay, I’ll stop.
Aspirations? Got a lot of ’em, and I’ve been talking some of them up for years. This blog is a testament to the talkie talk. Here I’ve documented the deep insights, made the grand proclamations, and yes, occasionally taken some baby steps. But I should be on the run and half-way home by now with some of these things. No excuses, really. I am where I am because I did what I did. In fact, one of best things I did do this year was to drop the to-do list in favor of the done-did list. I done-did this for about a four month period, and it was quite illuminating. Basically I just wrote down on my calendar at the end of each day what I actually did in support of realizing my aspirations. The results for the first month were shocking. Had you asked me beforehand what I did week in and week out, I would’ve told you in all honesty things like: I exercise at least three times a week; I meditate about every other day; I practice Spanish probably two or three times a week; blog once a week almost like clockwork; pump out a new song at least once a month; and on and on. Turns out I was full of shit. The done-did list doesn’t lie. I set the criteria in advance. An unbroken stretch of thirty minutes was the absolute minimum for any given activity to count. The done-did list didn’t lie, but apparently I did, to myself and to everyone else. I was seriously stunned to discover just how much I over-estimated my productivity. Having the objective data to consult each week created a positive feedback loop, and by month four I was exceeding my productivity goals on all fronts. Anyway, it was a helpful exercise… See how I like to keep talking! On to the next steps:
Aspiration: To make a living doing something I’m truly passionate about.
Next steps: 1) Finish website; 2) Set up coffee meet-ups with people in my area who do the type of work I want to do, even though most of them are women (see #9 on my 11 Things list).
Aspiration: To do proper recordings of all the half-baked song ideas stored on the hundred or so cassette tapes I have boxed up.
Next steps: 1) Finish digitizing cassettes to computer; 2) Develop one idea over the course of each week and record a solid demo by Sunday night. [And 3) Stop coming up with new songs, or else I’ll need several lifetimes to get it all done!]
Aspiration: To complete the several writing projects I’ve started.
Next steps: 1) Set up file system on computer to organize what I’ve got so far; 2) Write outlines for each project; 3) Make set time every week for writing and write something during that time, no matter what!
Aspiration: Don’t get fired from my day job just yet.
Next step: 1) Stop spending half of the work day on Reverb 10!