Originally posted on Facebook HERE
New year coming up. New window. Nice view of the pod. Our lives here are in a really crazy state of flux right now. And as we end one year and start looking forward to the next, there’s so many things I want to get done – but I probably won’t. I want to lose at least ten pounds and keep it off, but I probably won’t. I want to start a regular yoga practice, but I probably won’t. I’d like to get back into running on a frequent, if not daily basis, but I probably won’t. All three of those things, and most likely a few more I didn’t think of, were things I would have liked to accomplish in 2019, but I didn’t. I think they were probably even there going into 2018 as well. We all have these kind of “pseudo” goals that we’d like to work on, but they don’t make it to the forefront. On the flip side – going into 2019 I wanted to publish my first book (I published four). I wanted to get the Twistin’ Egyptians recording we did in 1987 finished and released to the public, and we also got that done this year. Those were two long term goals that sat on the sidelines for years before they were actually completed. Their time had come, I guess. They became the main goals of the year. They were the ones I pulled off the “someday” shelf and said, “this year I will get this done”. It took a lot of work and a commitment to getting it done no matter what the obstacles. Going into 2020, I expect the third blog book will be published, but now publishing books is kind of old hat for me. The new challenges for 2020 will be these, which have been on the “someday” shelf for a while now as well, but I want to get it done in 2020: 1) – write, record and release an all bass recording. Just solo bass. Now, there’s all kinds of self-talk that comes up when I think about this one, and much – if not most of it, is negative. There’s many, many bass players out there who are way, way better than I am. Why would anyone care about this, much less listen or buy it? Doesn’t matter, because this is the type of goal I’m doing for myself. When I decided to publish my first book FEED YOUR ANGEL it wasn’t about becoming a best selling author – it was about fulfilling a life long goal to write and publish a book. Man, it felt good to do that. Even if nobody ever read it. So, in 2020 my main goal is to get that done. 2) I also want to do an album’s worth of jazz fusion material. This means putting a band together, writing and recording it all next year. Tons of work. I have some decent musicians lined up for this, now it’s time to get everyone together and see it – mentally see it and believe it, then make it happen. 3) almost all my 2020 goals seem to be musically related – I’ve always wanted to be a better singer than I am. I’ve written before about my insecurity here. I’d really like to gain more confidence, so – my goal here is to get at least a few songs down good enough on vocals and guitar to play at least one acoustic open mic in 2020. Even if it’s just one or two songs. This, to me, is the scariest of the three. Baby steps, right? I’m also looking at taking vocal lessons as well. Why? Why – at sixty years old, would this matter? Who’s going to care? Maybe nobody, but if I could get this one simple thing done, it would mean a lot to one person… me. So… what stirs your heart? What are the things you want to get done every year, but don’t? Is there one or two on there that really speak to you? Get serious about the ones that matter, or they’ll stay on the someday shelf forever, and die when you do – untouched. Our dreams die if we let the days just pass by…
