Month: August 2017

What up! It’s been a while.  I highly recommend you listen to this post today instead of reading it! https://youtu.be/Tj856sgi5zw

So today’s post is inspired by my guitar – that sexy curvaceous piece of craftsman ship that sits on my lap and acts as an extension of my very soul. I could write you a whole essay on why I play guitar and what I love about music and the importance of having a creative outlet that takes your demons away.

However that’s not the point of this discussion –in brief: I play quite a bit, I’m not that technically proficient or musically educated but I love making music and it makes my soul happier than almost anything else on this planet.

This is the first point I’m going to make:
If you love doing something –  being not amazing at it isn’t an excuse to not do it. You should spend as much time as you can doing it –because you will get better just by virtue of doing it and frankly it’s not about getting better, it’s about doing something that you earnestly love.

Anyway, that’s not the point of this discussion.

Do some visualising with me:

Picture yourself playing a tune on whatever instrument you wish –a guitar, a piano, a kazoo, a banjo -whatever–maybe your friends are jamming with you, maybe you’re playing in front of a crowd.

The music is flowing, your soul is alive, everything is perfect and it feels like nothing could go wrong. It feels effortless and you’re just riding this beautiful wave of inspiration.
*PLUNK*
You hit the wrong note or the drummer drops the beat or something happens.
Do you stop and cry about it?
Do you stop playing and apologise to the instrument, yourself, the audience and the rest of the band? Do you say you’ll never play again because you made a mistake?
No mother fucker, you wince, grit your teeth, maybe let out an Fbomb and keep fucking playing!

The flow is more important than the one or two sour notes- the best part about making a mistake while playing is that mistakes happen. A mistake is one isolated moment but time is a never ending stream of moments – some good, some amazing some shit and a lot in between.

The number of mistakes I’ve made, the number of opportunities I’ve passed up…
If I were to stop and count them or spend time feeling sorry for myself do you know what would happen?

I’d never do anything, I’d never learn anything and I’d miss a life time’s more worth of opportunities.

So certainly learn from your mistakes but don’t let the past hold your present back. Don’t let the baggage that no one but you cares about stop you from having new experiences – don’t let it make you hesitate and worry about fucking up again – you’ll more than likely fuck up again but that doesn’t matter.

The band doesn’t care if you fuck up- they all fuck up too.
Does the audience care? No they’re having too good a time to notice what you’re doing.

And if you do fuck up so badly that everything stops and everyone notices then make it funny, have a laugh- pick your ass up and keep playing- the show must go on!

The following post could be summarized in the Shia Labeouf video titled ‘Just Do It’ – come to think of it, most of this blog could be summarized by just watching that video. However some of you need it spelt out even clearer so here goes:

This is dedicated to my numerous friends who give me dumb excuses. You know who you are – to be honest, you’re probably not reading this so whatever. I’ll probably curse at you a few more times by the end of this post.

So here goes

Situation One

Friend: “I want to do stuff but I don’t know what to do…”
Me: “Well what have you tried doing?”
Friend: “Nothing, I want to draw, I want to write, I want to make a video game, I want to learn to play guitar and I’d like to learn a language.”
Me: “have you started doing any of this?”
Friend: “no, I don’t know which one I should do and I’m scared of doing the wrong thing”
Me: *has aneurism and while making gurgling noises*

If you don’t know what to do with your life, but you’re sure what you’re currently doing isn’t the right thing then start trying everything until you find something. Not everyone gets the pleasure of a perfect epiphany telling them what their sole vocation is – not even I, I’m still not sure if I’m supposed to be an entrepreneur, a comedian or a musician – I love doing all three things so I’m doing all three things.
By trying to actually DO STUFF you will quickly figure out what you don’t enjoy doing.

Situation Two
Friend: “I’m so jealous you’re able to motivate yourself to do all these cool things”
Me: “you know it’s not very easy to stay the course, you just have to get up and do it”
Friend: “I read a few self help books and am just waiting for that aha moment”
Me: “that aha moment doesn’t so much happen as you just have to practice disciplining yourself to get more out of your life”
Friend: “but it’s so hard to get out of bed and get things done”
Me: (getting frustrated) “I know, but really the best thing you can do is start journaling your success and writing to do lists, having a clearly defined goal with a reason to accomplish it really helps things along too”
Friend: “I tried that but I couldn’t keep it up”
Me: “That’s where the discipline comes in…”
Friend: “but you make it look so easy though…maybe this trip to South East Asia will inspire me”
Me: “it isn’t easy, there have been many days especially after my break up where I didn’t do anything useful and the only thing that brought me out of it was myself. If you can’t discipline yourself at home, what makes you think being in a foreign country will help?”
Friend: “the energy of the place and the experiences I’ll have”
Me: “here drink this bottle of bleach, maybe it will help inspire you”

Seriously though, I get sick of hearing this sort of shit. People just waiting for the right thing to get them to act – news flash sweetheart! IT’S YOUR FUCKING JOB TO ACT!

I’m not any different to you. There are days when it’s a struggle. Do you think that I wouldn’t just like to play dark souls or watch Rick and Morty all day? Do you think when I’ve got a girl round I don’t just want to spend all day lying next to her alternating between cuddling and fucking like rabbits? Of course I want to! However all the video games, Netflix and pussy eating in the world will not get me to where I want to be, so it’s really about focusing on what matters. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still indulge in these things but not until my work for the day is done, not until I’ve attended to the important things because MY DREAMS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN MY TEMPORARY PLEASURES AND DISTRACTIONS.

So many of you brilliant and beautiful people are restlessly drifting through life unhappy, waiting for that perfect thing to come along – YOU HAVE TO GO FIND IT!

 

And for you lazy fucks who simply can’t ‘find the motivation’ I will share with you my three greatest motivators:

Proving others wrong
Demonstrating to yourself that you don’t need your ex girlfriend
Seeing your own breakthroughs and progress

That last one is probably the most inspiring. Seeing how far you’ve got, what you’ve accomplished –it demonstrates to you very quickly how you can achieve anything you set your mind to.

I hope this slightly antagonistic post inspires you to go out and do something. If you’re worried about doing the wrong thing, you’ll only find out if it’s the wrong thing by going out and doing it.

Life is about doing stuff, succeeding and making mistakes – you’ll typically learn more from your mistakes anyway so regardless, it’s win win.

So go fucking do stuff.

Fuck you Katherine go do some shit.

You too Ryan, you’re brilliant so start acting like it. If you would like to support my cause feel free to have a look at my online store,  follow me on the social medias or comment below -feedback is always appreciated!