You in One Year? and Do You Have Any Questions?

One of my favorite rules in 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson is "Treat yourself as if you were someone you were responsible for helping." It's a great reminder to a point that should be incredibly obvious. There really is no one that will take care of you for you. For example, eating well and getting exercise. Even if you hire a nutritionist and a personal trainer, you still have to eat the food and do the hard work. No one can eat well for you. No one can workout for you. It's up to you. However, we so often and for so many seemingly justifiable reasons, put those self-maintenance things off. Peterson makes the point of how people will often take better care of their pets than themselves. Funnily enough, today I will be taking one of my dogs to the vet for routine yearly care, and next week I myself head to the doctor for my first physical in a decade. My pets see the doctor way more often than I do.

Come on, Audra (left), it's time to go to the vet!

Another of the rules that struck me was "compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who someone else is today." And in this rule is a powerful lesson for our work as musicians. What can you do today that will make you a better producer tomorrow? It might be small and barely noticeable, but if we do things like this every day, the results over the course of a year could pretty dramatic. 

All of this leads me to the latest episode of the Music Production Podcast, "Where Will You Be in One Year." Give it a listen and think about how you can take steps today that will put you in a better place tomorrow.

Any Questions?

I get a few questions via emails and comments from time to time, and I thought I'd start answering these on the podcast. A lot of the questions come up time and time again in different forms. Sometimes the questions we ask can be very helpful to ourselves and others. Other times, the questions themselves are problematic and reveal some underlying beliefs and biases that need to be dispelled. Almost always they highlight issues and challenges we all face.

In the comments, let me know if you have any questions about your work, music, creativity, experience...whatever. I will use them for future episodes of the Music Production Podcast!