How Serious is Your Craft?
A lesson from The Queen.
Should we be taking our songwriting craft seriously? Yes, absolutely. That’s not even a maybe. The more seriously you take your craft, the more impact it will have on your listeners and the industry. But now and again, I find myself taking it too seriously. I’ve done this since I was a child. Serious about all sorts of things:
Too many chores on my todo list
Too many jobs other people have asked me to do
And then there's a long list of things I should do for my work as a songwriter:
Too many song ideas in my Idea Bank (Link) I've not yet written
Song ideas drafted but not yet finished
Blogs and books I want to write
Songs I should have sent off to someone or somewhere
A simple app like Reminders (Link) can turn into a slavemaster and should be there to improve my life, not worse. And there's more. And sometimes my list of todo things on my Reminders App goes berserk, waking up with way too many things for one screen on my iPhone. And on days like that, I almost hate Reminders.
But that's crazy. It makes me realize that I am probably taking myself too seriously.
A lesson from The Queen
5th June this year was the end of a fantastic four-day celebration for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Seventy years of serving the country, the Commonwealth, and millions of people worldwide. And there was something the commentators said that made me want to do something for my out-of-control todo list.
They said: The Queen has a perfect balance: She takes her work seriously, but not herself seriously. Genius. It's all about balance, what needs to be taken seriously and what needs to be taken less seriously.
She takes her work seriously, but not herself seriously.
Here’re some pics:
How to be in balance
When the Queen passed away in September, I remembered this: I need to have my life in a better balance -
I should take my work seriously
But not take myself seriously
In reality, I make the todo list, not that App. I choose what my day should look like, no one else. Sure, I should take my work seriously because it's my craft and calling. And that's what my todo list is for. But it's a tool for my work, not the master.
So, here’s something I keep at the top of my reminders:
Take your work seriously, but not yourself.
And this is at the top of Reminders. If this works, I’ll let you know!
Questions
Here are a few questions for you:
Is your todo list getting too long? Is it out of control?
Is your todo list trying to make your life far too serious?
Are you too hard on yourself to stop you from enjoying your work?
Hope this helps!
Simon
Hi Simon. I would put my "challenge" with my craft as one of pulling the trigger. I use Google Drive (and other Google products) for most of my planning, notes, and execution on a variety of ideas. I write software for Meta (Google Apps Script) so the tools are second nature and germane to most of my work.
I'll have a list of topics to blog or put on a video but then second-guess which one would have the most impact. In doing so, fail to execute on any of them. In the past few weeks I've determine that I have to make a 5 minute decision on which topic and which song I'll work on. Then just do it without allowing myself an out.
In creating something, making incremental progress, I feel "better" - less discontent - and in that leads me to enjoy the process more. Not sure how that jives with your topic or your essay but that is what reading your piece prompted me to think about.
Take care.