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The Importance of Having Fun
One of my goals for this year is to have fun creating things. After the recording of the Bloom & Grow album I noticed that I was not having fun when recording. It had become a chore, which is not the way you record good stuff that folks want to listen to. Be the seeker of joy is one of our mantras around here and I needed to put it towards recording. Last year when I recorded the Spring! single I decided to put Seeds on as a b-side. I decided to just be silly and to remember to have fun and I was pleased with the outcome.
We watch a lot of sports around here and something that comes up again and again (and again) in post victory interviews with champions is that they almost always stress that they went out there and had fun. We just watched the January Grand Sumo tournament in which wrestler Hoshoryu was making a bid to be promoted to Yokozuna, which is every sumo wrestler dreams of reaching. There are no hard and fast rules, but convention suggested he had to finish the 15 bout tournament with no more than 2 losses. He lost a third match on day 9, putting him behind in the competition, and pretty much out of the running for Yokozuna. He managed to turn it around and win the tournament in stunning fashion. In the post victory interview he was asked how he felt going forward after the loss on day 9, knowing the promotion was likely out of the picture and his response? My coach told me to have fun, so that’s what I did. I had fun wrestling.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a captain of an NHL team ever not talk about how much fun the team had playing together en route to a Stanley Cup.
My main focus this year is on video creation. Fun, silly, low budget videos. Lyric videos with photos, condensed songwriting videos. The goal is to make videos that people can share with their friends when they hear a song of mine that resonates. If I want the videos to be fun, I have to have fun while I make them. So as frustrating as dealing with video editing software can be at times, I am making it my goal to enjoy coming up with the ideas and executing on them. I’ve been spending a large part of the month working on one songwriting video, and figuring out mic placement for the solo acoustic songs. I’m going to accept that the condensed songwriting videos will be either a bit scattered, or a bit long, as I get into the groove, and am going to accept that the mic for the solo acoustic videos will have to be in the shot if you’re going to hear the vocals loud and clear. Along with having fun, accepting the level I’m currently at will be key to achieving my video goals. Anyway, check out my Youtube channel for upcoming things.