I was persuaded by a friend to write this blog who noticed that I didn’t write it last week and he wanted to know where I am on the journey. In this time of holidays and everyone being busy with life I thought I’d skip if I didn’t have songs but alas this is part of journey as well. I’ve been writing a lot of lyrics and words. I wrote one song about veterans but I didn’t like it so I scrapped it. I’ve also been busy teaching songwriting classes for 3 schools . You can read more about that in 12 things you didn’t know about me blog. I’ve also been setting up a plan for 2018. Every year I have goals and visions, but this year is different. I have the most specific goals I’ve ever had and I have a lot of them. I finally feel I’m ready to act on the lessons I’ve learned over the past few years. For an entrepreneur, one of the hardest things is to decide what is the most important thing to work on right now. Prioritizing is tough when everything can be improved, but I feel like I have a good set of plans for 2018. I just have to focus on one thing at a time and they will all get done.
On the writing front I’ve been reflecting a lot on my style, what I’ve learned so far and what else I need to improve. November 30 was the official end of my writing phase but as I’ve said before I will continue until I write 30 songs. My goal is to complete 30 songs by February 28 and then officially release 17 song album on May 8 which is my birthday. My approach to this project from the beginning has been that it’s a journey and accept the fact that I’ll make mistakes, but the journey overall will never stop until I reach my goal or ultimately releasing 17 songs on my first full album. This is why it’s called the B·Earth! This is part of me becoming aware of myself and making it a creative journey as well. I’m well aware that I’ve already made mistakes and have been compiling notes for each song on what I want to change when I revisit them in March and April 2018. I’m also aware of the growth I’ve achieved. It may not be visible to you, but to me just the fact that I wrote, recorded, produced and mixed 10 songs on my own has been a breakthrough in my abilities, confidence and self esteem. I know I have more to learn and that is why there are 20 more songs waiting to come out of my soul. One of the best ways to succeed is to keep making new products. Along the way you will learn the ins and outs, what works and what doesn’t and apply them to all the subsequent products you make.
There is one thing that I have not been able to tap in my writing so far. There is a moment when I sing when I feel like I’m about to jump off a cliff knowing that humans cannot fly but also knowing that I will soar through the sky. This usually happens when I sing at church with songs I’ve usually just learned days before. There is an element of surprise even for me. Often it feels that I am listening to the song with the congregation and I just happen to be delivering it. It feels that it comes through me and there is an element of some unknown power that I’m tapping in the moment. I say unknown because I can’t tap at at will, although I have to be open to it. Some would call this the x-factor or maybe the moment that everyone stops to listen or maybe even God or Universe. I haven’t been able to capture that in my songs and I hope to work on that through the songs still to be written.
