Do you love what you do? More importantly, do you love how you do what you do? How can you make a difference in this world with your music? How can we stay healthy, happy, and balanced while pursuing our goals? Every day of our lives we make choices. Those choices affect the quality of our personal life, our careers, our health, and our future. How we handle those decisions is vital because it takes only one word to change the course of our lives.
Let’s look at some facts.
Fact #1: Companies’ Hiring Objectives Are Evolving
In my experience, the era of the diva and the divo who exhibit a work ethic or attitude that is unappealing and challenging is over. Most companies are hiring artists who are easy to work with, are kind, and enjoy what they do—and who support the goodwill of their company as well as their colleagues on and off the stage. Especially during these difficult economic times, companies are making every effort to avoid any potential problems. Artists are rehired not only for their beautiful voices and talents on the stage, but also because they are good people.
Unfortunately, it is human nature to be drawn to or dwell in negativity. My philosophy is that the number one best thing you can do for your own well being and the well being of everyone around you is to just stay away from gossip. Stay away from slander. I am sure you have heard, “What goes around comes around.” Negative or positive, the words we use create our reality and our future.
On January 21, 2010, Musical-America.com posted an Associated Press article, “New Study: The Arts Will Hit Bottom in 2011,” by Brett Zongker. The fact is, artist fees are decreasing, there are fewer productions/performances being presented in the world, and artists, unions, and companies everywhere are finding themselves in a spiraling tug of war. Worried? Don’t be. I study and do research on artists daily. Artists that are generally positive, that focus on giving instead of taking, that sing from their heart, and that are kind to everyone around them basically thrive.
How can this be? Do what you love and love what you do! Doing what you love brings joy, peace of mind, success, and purpose. If you don’t love what you do and do what you love, it takes vital life energy away from you and promotes stress in your life and in others. This state of being translates to the stage. It doesn’t matter whether you are the best technical singer in the world—if you don’t sing from your heart and give to the audience and your colleagues on stage, what difference does it make?
Fact #2: Music Is about Beauty and Healing, Not about Making Money
We all need to make money to live; it is a necessity. I have found, however, that one can make a great deal more money by having fun in the process and focusing on improving oneself and one’s craft, and serving others with it. It is very easy to spend day after day focusing on making money, which often leads to increased stress levels, worry, and fear, resulting in sickness and disease. What benefit comes from making money if it is then spent trying to regain health? What you focus on you become.
Fact #3: Gratitude Creates the Platform for Success
Be grateful for everything you have—and everything you do not have. Have you ever encountered colleagues who seem perpetually down or negative no matter what is occurring in their professional or personal lives? It is important to be grateful and happy wherever you are in life. Perhaps the thing that you are wishing for could end up being your greatest curse, and the universe is actually protecting you from that experience by not giving it to you. Invite yourself to be as grateful to sing for an audience of five as you would be for thousands at the Met or La Scala.
Attitude is the key that can lead to success or destruction. See every challenge as an opportunity to understand yourself, to let go of old constraints, to develop new skills, and to improve. Focusing on a problem or challenge only brings more problems and challenges, because what you focus on you become. Focus, rather, on a solution. This eliminates the problem or challenge, and you are left with only a solution.
Fact #4: Every Performance, Rehearsal, or Audition Is a “Good” One
Think twice when it comes to judging colleagues’ auditions, rehearsals, or performances. Think about how it feels to be the recipient of judgment and criticism. Everyone benefits from acknowledging the positive aspects of performances, auditions, and rehearsals. This creates a platform for affirmative growth. Artists and colleagues are better able to tap into their creativity and innate talent when such an environment has been established. This means everyone will be more apt to improve where needed because they will be open to constructive criticism where warranted.
Fact #5: Changing Negative Thought Patterns Requires a Positive Projective Mind
What good does it do to have the perfect technique or to be the best actor when you are driving yourself crazy with worries, problems, what-ifs, complaints, why-nots, or if-onlys? The mind is so full of negative thought patterns that it becomes a vicious cycle that is very challenging to break because it becomes second nature. And it affects everything in your life accordingly.
One day several years ago, my wife shared her desire for us to have a spiritual practice for our individual health and the health of our relationship. She suggested that we attend together a yoga and meditation class she was already attending. I resisted. The last thing I wanted was to be surrounded by people doing “pretzel yoga” while noticing my apparent lack of flexibility. Then I took time to reflect on my life and our lives together. I realized I was not sleeping well. I found myself continually wondering why my career wasn’t going better, why I wasn’t making more money, and why the world just didn’t understand me. More importantly, my mind would not turn off these negative thought patterns due to the worry and fear I was experiencing daily. My wife thought this class would help.
I was still skeptical but, willing to try anything once, I reluctantly attended a Naam Yoga class taught by Joseph Michael Levry at Universal Force Healing Center in New York City. What did I find? First, I learned yoga wasn’t only for those who could bend themselves into positions I couldn’t begin to comprehend. I found something that helped me to better control my mind and to actually transform my negative thought patterns into positive projective ones through breath, movement, and sound. Yes, even sound. I found a way to eliminate a significant amount of fear and worry from my life in a very accessible and practical way, giving me peace of mind and renewed joy.
However you can, it is vital in this age of fast and constant change on a global level to find peace of mind in a way that works for you. You have to be yourself—don’t try to be like anyone else. As a manager, I want to see who you are. Do you love what you do and do what you love? Are you a positive person? How do you interact with others? How will you interact with your manager? Are you grounded and practical, hopeful and creative? Do you like yourself?
What I can tell you is that the quality of your thoughts, feelings, speech, and behavior will directly impact your quality of life. Don’t trust me. Try it. Now is the time to sing from your heart and not allow negative thought patterns to control you. We are so incredibly fortunate to have music in our lives. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter how much money you have, how beautiful your voice is, or how great an actor you are. What truly matters is how you have affected others that day. Were you supportive or critical, happy or angry, loving or aggressive?
You have control over being the best “you” you can be. All of that translates, believe me, to your every audition, your every rehearsal, and your every performance—whether on the musical stage or on the greater stage called life.
