Hey y’all,
I’m excited and proud to be touring with my amazing new band in August.
For those that don’t know, we’re heading on the road for the “Two Cities Tour” starting in Mt Gambier on Saturday August 6. From there we head to my old home-town, Adelaide for two nights at La Boheme and The Wheaty for COMA’s winter sessions. The short tour wraps up in Melbourne with our Bennetts Lane debut performance. Click here for more information.
Although it’s only short, the amount of time, hard work and love in organising the tour has been pretty huge. Much more than I had expected, I suppose.
I don’t tell you this to play to your sense of decency and compassion for me, the hard-working musician. No.. far from an attempt to guilt you into coming to the show (although, by any means necessary, right?!) I wanted to talk about the power that motivation plays in perseverance.
Earlier this year, I undertook a mentorship, which discussed motivation and how important it is in helping to define purpose to achieve goals. It wasn’t a “just do it” motivational-speaker-style pep talk. Instead, I learnt about the role that motivation plays when times get tough. It was thinking why something (the particular project) was important to me – what it would mean to me when I had achieved it, but also what it would mean if I didn’t achieve it. It was envisioning the end-result and imagining how I would feel – physically and emotionally. The purpose being: when things get hard or frustrating, having a clear picture of the end-goal compels you to keep going.
It has for me.
I’m motivated by little things.
The silence in between a song’s end and the round of applause; that empty space where musicians reflect on what’s just happened and celebrate each other’s contribution. That certain breathlessness that comes with a total connection and dedication to what I’m playing – even just typing about this shortens my breath. The feelings of others is motivating too. I’m really looking forward to performing for my family and friends in Adelaide again and feeling their pride and support. And of course, I’m looking forward to the jokes and beers with the band while we’re away.
These are just some of the things that I reflect on when I get worn-down by the endless emailing, budgeting, etc. that accompanies organising something like this. These are the motivations that help me send another press release that will likely go unanswered or a Facebook invite that will likely be ignored. These (and the love and unending support of my wife) are what help me to do what’s necessary for a tour that will likely come at considerable personal expense.
These motivations are completely selfish.
They’re things that make me feel so excited and inspired to keep working hard and putting myself out there.
They make me thankful to be a musician.
I encourage you all to consider your motivations in this way. It’s not just for creative people or for creative projects.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. If you want to join in with what I’m doing, join the mailing list. I’d love to have you on board!
I’d love to see your smiling faces at one (or more) of the shows on the tour.
