Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Up way early today. Been the case for a while now. Just so much going on. Feels like we’re flying by the seat of our pants, and that can be an awkward place to be. Hopefully, this is the storm before the calm. Next week we start a home remodeling project that is the largest either of us has ever done – basically the entire 2nd floor of our house, which includes two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. All of it needed to be cleared out in advance. New doors, moulding, cabinets, windows & flooring. We’ll be living in half our house until it’s done. Already tensions are high. It’s stressful. The kitchen is getting a whole new layout – will we like it? We won’t know until it’s done. That’s a scary place to be – spending a lot of time and effort on something with no guarantees of success. But isn’t that life? Don’t we all have to make decisions about changes, or starting something new, that we’re uncomfortable with? That are shrouded with uncertainty? Should I stick with what I know, or push the boundaries? We as humans like to stick with what we know. It’s our comfort zone. But if we don’t periodically take a risk, do we just live our lives out like the movie “Groundhog Day”? The same day over and over? I guess I don’t see anything really wrong with that if that’s what makes you happy. Maybe the day you live consistently pushes boundaries by nature, right? But I’ve seen indecision kill dreams while people wait for everything to be “just right” before beginning. You have a dream, move forward with it. This came up for me as I was getting ready to start two new YouTube channels yesterday. One (Dave On Guitar) to chronicle my goal to become a better singer in 2020. The other (Dave On Bass) to chronicle my journey into learning how to slap and tap on bass, another goal for 2020. On that page I also plan on posting original material and cover songs I’m working on as well, but on both pages what I posted yesterday wasn’t pretty. It’s a series of “here I am on day one” posts, blemishes and all. I could have waited until I was better to start posting, but that wasn’t the point. The point is to get started. Progress can be so gradual we forget where we came from. You’ll never be an expert on day one. My ego would have had me post only perfect, full songs on the Dave On Bass page only and skip the Dave On Guitar page altogether. Full, finished songs take a lot of time and effort as well, and my intention is to intersperse that in. It won’t be scary to push the upload button on those videos, though. It was super scary, a lot of trepidation, to push upload on the videos posted yesterday. But sometimes the magic falls just outside our comfort zone, and if we never look, we’ll never know. One final note – I designed the “Dave On Guitar” logo in the mid 90s. Over twenty years ago. Then never followed through. Life gets in the way. Doing things we’ve never done is awkward and comes with a ton of uncertainty. Please don’t ignore the things your heart yearns for out of fear. Fear is the worst investment strategy you can have. You’ll need to take small steps to accomplish a big dream.
