If someone would have told me years ago that practicing every day would make me an incredible singer, I would have never believed them. Something in my mind would have said, “Oh…that might work for someone who has a lot of talent or money or time, but not me.” As much as I wanted it to be so, in my mind, this dream just didn’t seem possible for me. I thought that other people were fated with being successful singers. I didn’t think I had a space in that arena. As much as I wanted it to be so, I didn’t have the confidence that my actions had the potential to actually make it so. So I created my fate by that belief…that false belief. And I quietly, subtly submitted to the role of side-liner, singer sub, onlooker, supporter and cheerleader to all my colleagues and friends who were succeeding at it. But I was rarely ever the one to actually have the success. “Gosh…that’s sad, Amy!” you might be thinking. Yes, but where in your own life have you played the same role? And don’t get me wrong: I have very little regret. I was happy there (or so I thought) in that space. But I can’t help but always wonder, “What more could I have accomplished if I would have just changed my beliefs?”
Funny how life comes full circle. Now, I am a mother of 3 kids I need to nurture and instill these beliefs into. I am in the process of restarting my vocal studio with a completely different business model that requires lots of risk, lots of time, and inevitably…lots of money. On February 4th, as you all may know, I decided to take the plunge and quit my full-time job in order to pursue this endeavor of creating online vocal courses and going ALL IN with my business. It hasn’t been easy. Money is tight in our house. Actually, incredibly tight. Before I quit my job, I decided I’d still work the same hours I was working at Apple, from 5am to 1:30pm Tuesday through Friday, so we could keep the kids in the same routine they were already familiar with. But this ultimately means I’m still missing seeing them off to school and spending days coloring and having dress up tea parties with my 3-year-old princess since she’s still in preschool 4 days a week so I can get this off the ground. Since my last day at Apple (over 6 weeks ago), I’ve invested in two online courses that teach me how to create courses and get in front of the camera in the most professional way possible. I am learning the ins and outs of WordPress and Canva and my hosting company, Bluehost, as well as Convertkit and Buffer and all the nuances of social media marketing. It’s a HUGE learning curve, but I’m dedicated to practicing and learning day-by-day. Sometimes I make monumental leaps and other days I make incremental progress, but something has clicked with me that has never clicked before: My dedication and commitment to this process of learning and getting this all down and working on it every chance I get is causing some SERIOUS MOMENTUM. I am experiencing baby successes that are leading to toddler successes. And I’m pretty sure these toddler successes will one day graduate from Kindergarten and become 1st grade successes. And a year from now, I’m POSITIVE I’ll look back and say, “Wow, Lady! You’ve come a long, freakin’ way!!!” Cuz that’s how I talk to myself. I call myself “Lady” and say “freakin'”. 😉
All that to say, when we are dedicated to the process, and working on it every day, incremental success becomes inevitable. It’s the same with fitness, our abs, our guitar, or our finances. Whatever we spend lots of time on, playing around with, reading up on, asking others about, tweaking, adjusting, trying…PRACTICING…we’ll eventually master. Will we master it to the level where we’ll become world famous and make millions of dollars? Who knows. But we will never know unless we commit. And as you know, the reasons behind our commitment have to be super clear and super strong. We have to know where we’re going and identify the processes that will get us there the quickest. It is imperative that we understand this and recognize what we’re doing at every step. But it is even more important that we make some kind of progress every single day. Most people get defeated because their efforts are scattered and random. And then they wonder why they’re not seeing results. We always want to see immediate results for our actions, right? But true success rarely comes in the form of immediate results, if ever. We know this fundamentally, but when someone doesn’t respond to our blog or Facebook posts or even our paid ads, we can’t help but take it personally and get discouraged.
So today, I’m charging you. Commit to the mastery of the skills your are learning. Commit and put all those eggs in that basket. You may not see the outcome and reward in doing so for months or even years, but you will eventually reap the benefits of your commitment to practice and get better along the way!
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