From Scratch – Adventures in Independent Music Making

Posts Tagged ‘philosophy’

I walked out on my job this week… with no back-up plan.

(yikes)

I kept my grandmother’s navy blue sweater in the office (it was always too cold in there) and I would always hang it up on the coat rack before leaving, so that it would be there for me the next day. I decided to wear the sweater home, at the end of what became my last shift, because the weather turned much colder after such an unusually warm morning (I hadn’t brought enough layers).

In the moment of making that decision, a strange feeling came over me: I got the sense that I may not ever be going back to that office again… and I haven’t. It was the same kind of instinctual guidance that also led me to pursue music in Toronto (you can read more about that decision in the first article of my column for WomensRadio , entitled “Learning My Lessons“, which was published last week).

Are my instincts to be trusted?

I wondered for a long time if there was a difference between following one’s heart and following one’s gut. The expressions seem to be used interchangeably. The more I talk with people and the more decisions I make, the more I see that there is a difference to me.

My friend and former neighbour, Justin, used to sit down with me and discuss theories of spirituality. From him I learned that some philosophies suggest the ‘gut‘ is one’s ‘ego center‘ and that the ego is not by nature a bad thing (though we are socialized in Western culture to believe otherwise). It is simply the ego (one’s sense of self).

My other friend, Rory, reminds me that as humans on Earth, we need an ego. If a person didn’t have a sense of their material self, their mortality, they would literally run around like a free-form energy ball until they got hit by a car or ran off a cliff, as lemmings do. So, an ego is a good thing, but a person can become destructive and desperate when that ego is out of balance, leading to poor self-esteem, narcissism, god complexes, and self-centeredness.

Knowing from my background in health sciences, as well as first and second hand experiences, that many chronic conditions of the digestive system are related to stress and unhappiness, I err on the side of caution when consulting my ‘gut’ for guidance. Is it my true nature speaking to me? Or an imbalanced ego? Instead, I view my “gut” as a smoke detector: It tells me when danger is present. My heart, on the other hand, is what guides me on how to resolve the situation and maintain a path that is true to myself.

Justin introduced me to an exercise of asking myself questions that, for a time, totally changed the way I approached problems. Simply put, the practice involves focusing on the heart and asking it an honest question. If I didn’t know what question to ask, I just talked about whatever was coming to my mind and observed how my heart muscles reacted. Feelings of calmness or glowing are signs of encouragement. Cramping or weakness are signs of problems. When I couldn’t make a decision about something, I generally asked “is this the right thing to do?”. If I got a calm or glowing feeling, I would feel the answer as a yes. If I felt cramping or weakness, I knew it was a no.

In reflection of the past weeks’ events, I have come to realize that I have fallen out of this practice and reading a WikiHow article on “How to follow your intuition” (in preparation for this blog today) reminded me of the importance of asking my “self” questions. Not to just think a thought in my head, but to genuinely ask on a deeper level and really listen for the answer.

Now what?

What am I going to do now? I’m not sure. I’ve got a lot of questions to ask myself right now. On a deeper level, though, I’m not worried. I have a feeling it is all going to work out for the best.

Financially, I can start pursuing my button making business more fervently (if you need 1″ promo pins, contact me!) and start seeking official sponsorship for the webcast; there will also be networking opportunities with industry folk at the Canadian Music Week conference later this week; and there is always the option to busk, if I have to (though it’s still a little cold for that).

There is also an opportunity to start scoring for film, professionally, in the near future. It’s still new, though, so I don’t want to put all my eggs in that basket yet. In the end, I like to think of myself as a creative problem solver. That means I can figure it out, right? (a calm, peacefulness exists in me now, so my heart says yes).

‘Til Next Week!

Meghan Morrison

www.meghanmorrison.com
@MegsMorrison

Tweet Hashtag #aiimm to share your own Adventures In Independent Music Making

Image “Heart” by Leland Francisco. Used with permission: CC-BY-2.0

There isn’t enough credit given to the Jack of All Trades.

Taught to believe that one can master nothing if they try to learn many things, we have become blind to the fact that being a Jack of All Trades is also something that can be mastered. In today’s new music industry, being a Jack of All Trades is almost a requirement for self-managed bands and is a defining element to being a truly independent artist.

It requires just as much (if not more) discipline, focus, and commitment to gain enough knowledge and efficacy to excel in multiple domains as it does to achieve mastery or ‘expertise’ in one. As Wikipedia suggests, the Jack of All Trades can be regarded as an interdisciplinarian or “master of integration”, meaning the “individual knows enough from many learned trades and skills to be able to bring their disciplines together in a practical manner”… is this not a qualifying description of a great manager? Is this not a birthplace for innovation? Is innovation not what moves science, society and art forward? Is this not the type of person that should be praised, not looked down upon, for their adventurous approach to learning and achieving success?

Tim Ferriss suggests in his article, The Top 5 Reasons to Be  a Jack of All Trades, that “the specialist who imprisons himself in self-inflicted one-dimensionality — pursuing an impossible perfection — spends decades stagnant or making imperceptible incremental improvements while the curious generalist consistently measures improvement in quantum leaps. It is only the latter who enjoys the process of pursuing excellence”.

This is a philosophy that I think has been with me since childhood. I have always been so excited to learn so many things and, with the exception of Calculus, I’ve always done well for myself with the things I have wanted to learn. But isn’t that half the battle? -wanting to learn something. How can you ever master a skill or trade if your heart isn’t in it? You can’t (or it takes a long time), because your mind isn’t open to it. If you are genuinely excited about learning something, you absorb information like a sponge and pick up skills with ease.

I have owned and managed a few small businesses over the last number of years and through all those experiences, this was the most important thing I learned and continue to carry with me in my independent music pursuits:

Your attitude and approach to problem solving is what will determine whether you succeed or fail.

I have come to find that when I have a relaxed, excited, and forward looking mind, my ‘problems’ solve themselves because my mind is more open to integrating what I know to create a solution (instead of dwelling on the problem). Unexpected events do arise, struggles happen, and I’m not always relaxed or excited when I have taken on more than I can handle-my drummer Brad Gulka will attest to that. That’s part of the process of mastering being a Jack of All Trades though.. learning where the balance is.

As an independent artist, it can be daunting to take on the role of marketing manager, booking agent, graphic designer, road manager, webmaster, merch manager, recording engineer, songwriter and live performer, publisher, producer, PR coordinator, show promoter, financial accountant, team leader, etc. I didn’t know how to do half of the things I needed to do as a self-funded indpendent artist with no money, but I want to make it work, so I’m learning. As I learn these new things and expand my project, I can communicate more effectively with the people who are taking over some of these roles for me.

I truly believe that a great manager is someone who can step in and do the work of anyone working under them on the drop of a dime. They are experts at being a Jack of All Trades and can integrate their experiential knowledge into managerial practices that are innovative, explorative, and impactful. That is the kind of manager I want to be for myself and the people who work with me.

I saw the figure of speech listed as being part of a larger couplet, suggesting the term originated in a poem. I didn’t, however, see a reference for the couplet or the poem. As such, I can’t state that this is indeed how the saying was meant to go, but I like to think it is:

Jack of all trades, master of none,

though ofttimes better than master of one

Meghan Morrison

www.meghanmorrison.com
@MegsMorrison

Tweet Hashtag #aiimm to share your own Adventures In Independent Music Making