For you to create value, you must be able to see - empathize - with the venue and their patrons. In this post, I share a few strategies that might work.
All in Self-Effectiveness
Play the music that may not artistically fulfill you. Don't play the gig for yourself. Serve others who came to receive from you an answer to their problems. Be their answer.
They Don't Try to Suck.
If you are like so many other leaders, consider using the sentence I suggested. Take a step to see a bandmate's problem and invest the time to be an answer. Empathy helps.
You're a Cog
In the end analysis, a lack of "empathy" kept me from getting the things I had seen others receive, and worse, ruined relationships. You might be a cog now, but you don’t have to be.
Grant Yourself Some Grace
To be empathetic is to be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes. To be able to see and accept their present - their truth. Grace is your ability to be thankful for the present.
"He who begins to be your friend because it pays will also cease because it pays." - Seneca
For you, determine where you are in life. When it's time to leave this life, you won't be thinking about the jobs you held or the career you made. Instead, you might be thinking of how you've changed the lives of others for the better. That's your vocation.
A job that you’re passionate about, willing to sacrifice everything for, and helps you build your "something bigger" is a career.
I'm writing a small series. The series is about jobs and careers. The series is for musicians that often mistake their jobs for their careers or even their vocations. Also, it's about the frustrations that follow.
When it's not right - reflect - get out. Find the others that are like you. Connect them. They’re safe.
Maybe it's just a Wisconsin thing, but I see so many T-Shirts that read: "Feed me tacos and tell me I'm pretty." You don't need tacos.
You cannot be the answer if you cannot see the question.
"The distance between where you want to be, and where you are, closes with one small step." - David Brady (until someone says someone else said it.)
You don’t need to be at the right place, at the right time, and with the right thing in order to prosper. Your time is not based on luck. Your time is now. Right now, you can do something that matters.
What are you doing each day to show up for the world? Your tribe? Yourself? Are you engaged in a creative pursuit to help build a better world? I've struggled to do this and I'll share my story of how I came around. Learn more.
The human-animal needs two things to survive:
Find sources of safety; and
Avoid threats.
The human-animal is simple. All we need to do, to survive, is to find safety and avoid threats. How come we're not doing this?
For me, being outside is an opportunity to explore, and I love exploration. I see it as a chance to learn more about the world around me, relate what I've learned to another thing, and build a more massive mental construct of the world. Doing so allows me to see my own role in the world better. What works for me doesn't have to work for you.
You Are Not Your Mind
You are not your mind, and by learning and applying mindful techniques, you'll find the success and happiness you seek in your life and your work. Do not let your mind decide for you how you will live in the world. You are not your mind.
Your ability to be the most effective individual relies on your ability to balance information from the past (how things were), the present (things as they are now), and the future (things as we want them to be). Too often we abuse this ability and, like Marty McFly, get stuck in the past, the future, and search endlessly to come back to the present.
Be Proud.
As leaders, marketers, professionals, artists, pick a profession: we have a responsibility to be proud of our work. In spite of the importance, I observe that we're not always proud; but we can be.