5 Ways Music Can Change Your Life 28 Feb 2014, 4:05 pm

Now more than ever we are surrounded by (some might say bombarded with) music every day. Rather than just letting it wash over you or soak your brain, how can you take all this wonderful music that is available and put it to good use? Here are 5 ways that music can better your life.

1. Play it
There is great satisfaction in playing a musical instrument. Whether you take it to virtuoso level, or just want to play to amuse your kids, (or annoy your parents) ANYONE can learn to play something! Want to learn to play guitar? A site like TrueFire has over 20,000 videos to teach you! You can stream them, download to your desktop, or play on your mobile device, allowing you to learn anywhere. YouTube is a great source for learning the basics of many instruments whether it is the Native American Flute, or just the good old Piano. Also buying an instrument is no longer a matter of having to find the right local shop that has it, but rather it can easily be delivered to your front door from Guitar Center.

2. Create it
Once you learn to play that instrument, it’s time to write some songs! There is no better way to express yourself than to put your creative hat on and put together your own tunes. Even if you decided not to learn an instrument you can still get in on the creative aspect of music with software like Sony Acid and apps for your phone like Figure that allow you to put loops and chord changes together without knowing anything about how to actually play. Even if you just throw down some beats and plunk out a simple melody you will be amazed at how liberating and therapeutic it is to send some of your own vibrations out into the Universe. We are not talking Beethoven’s 5th here – just some fun. As Gusteau said in Ratatouille – “Anyone can Cook”, likewise thanks to technology “Anyone can Jam”.

3. Move to it
There are two levels of engaging with music. Either you passively listen to it, or you actively interact with it. Interacting can come in many ways. You can dance to it, you can play it and groove while playing, you can listen while working out or running where you pace yourself to it, you can worship to it at church, you can sing along while riding in the car with friends, I do freestyle routines with my disc dogs to music. While there are times when just chillin’ out in your favorite chair as you listen to tunes is a great thing to do, I believe music is often enjoyed on a much deeper level when you interact with it. Don’t be afraid to partake in any of the above, many people refrain from letting themselves get into the music because they are concerned with what other people might think of them or they are afraid they won’t have rhythm and look foolish. Nonsense!! Never let someone else’s possible opinion stop you from being you! As the saying goes “Dance like nobody’s watching”. Amen.

4. Seek it
Finding new music is easier than ever thanks to our connected society. There are websites dedicated to exposing you to new music from unknown artists like Reverbnation or The Music Ninja. There are streaming sites that will suggest bands based on what you tell them you like to listen to like Pandora. If you want purchasing suggestions, iTunes or Amazon will give you more than you can digest. Even YouTube is a great source of finding new music and new artists. So don’t just sit around and wait for someone to tell you what you should listen to (although asking friends to recommend some new tunes is helpful as well) but go forth and actively search it out.

5. Share it
The greatest gifts are the ones you give away. That is certainly true for music. Since music can often move people on a deep soulful level, it really is a powerful gift. Take all those new bands that you have discovered and share them with friends by sending a link to their website. Spreading the word about new cool music to friends also has the added benefit of promoting the band or artists, which is a feel great, good deed in itself. Helping spread good art makes a serious deposit in your altruistic bank account of Karma!

So whether you play it or listen to it, engaging with all the music the world has to offer will definitely enrich your life! What are some ways YOU use music to brighten your day?

What Do You Want To Say To The World? 4 Jan 2014, 12:43 am

“Life is a leaf of paper white, wheron each one of us may write his word or two, and then comes night.”…..James Russell Lowell

You can shout out anything you want into the universe – what will it be?

Will it be something positive, uplifting, creative, educational, encouraging and hopeful – or, whining, complaining, degrading and hopeless? It’s up to you.

We live in an amazing time where most individuals have access to a public platform like never before. One hundred years ago the only way someone’s opinions, thoughts and comments reached a large audience on a regular basis would have been in newspapers, or for some folks like Politicians or Preachers, public speaking. It was nearly impossible for the average mother of 3 that lived in rural South Dakota to ever even think of having her thoughts heard by anyone other than family and friends that lived nearby, or on occasion the local shop keeper on Saturdays when she went to town.

However that is no longer the case. Now anyone with any kind of access to the internet via a computer or even cel phone can share all of their thoughts, dreams, ideas, opinions, convictions, wisdom, humor and creativity. Literally ALL of it. Through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Blogs, Forums, Websites, and a Zillion other platforms – any voice can now be heard.

Yet with this individual personal power comes choice. You must “choose” what to say with your new found “world voice”.

If we break it down to its most basic – you can use your time broadcasting to the universe in a positive way, or in a negative way. It really is up to you. Those words from Mr. Lowell that he wrote so many years ago are still relevant today! Our lives are short. We only have so many posts, comments, and blogs that will go out into the ether and then we will no longer be here. As Mr. Lowell waxed,  “And then comes night”. Have you considered what the total of your output will say? If someone had to read all of your comments, go through all of your tweets and posts and come up with one sentence to sum it all up – what would that sentence say about you and who you are in the world?

Writers and artists often look at all they do as their “body of work”. If someone were to step back and take a look at an author’s body of work they would see an overarching theme – a view from above as it were, and get a feel for what that author was all about. But have you ever considered that all of your Facebook posts, comments, blogs, emails and social media activities add up to a sort of online “body of work” that tells your story? They really do. What does your body of work say to others about who you are, and what you stand for? Are you a positive influence in the world – are you someone who others would love to be around and hang out with – or are you a “Debbie Downer”, always on the defensive or just generally miserable? Your overall output will usually paint one of these pictures to others as to who you are. Which one will you choose?

It is your choice. You can constantly share those complaining posts about being stuck in traffic, how miserable your workplace is, how this or that politician is ruining the world, or how you are fed up with “fill in the blank”. Remember it is your “body of work” to do with what you want. A negative expression here and there is no big deal, and everyone can be excused for an occasional rant. However, if you look at the sum of what you say and put out there; what are you contributing to the world’s vibe?

Here are 3 steps to ensure you are contributing your voice to the world in the direction you want:

1. Think before you post. Ask yourself: Will what I am about to put out there into the world be helpful, positive or informative to anyone? Is it just negative or pointless?
2. Pre-determine some positive things you would like to contribute to the world’s “cloud” – and then say it with conviction, clarity, and regularity. Soon that will become a habit.
3. Go out of your way to share something with someone who needs a little encouragement. It will not only help them, but will keep you focused on good output. Give continuously.

Spend some time “steering your ship” and directing your body of work to a positive place. You may find that the change you seek in the world is actually possible.

So before your night comes… what will you write on your leaf of paper white?

How To Stay Hungry For Your Goals: But Enjoy The Journey! 16 Aug 2013, 5:47 pm

Does getting full of what you are after make you bloated and slow? By contrast does being “hungry” for something make you get up early and stay up late focused on the prize?

Did you ever discover a new band, one who had been starving for years trying to “make it” – then put out a killer album, won lots of fans, and became a huge success? Then…. started putting out not so great albums….

It does seem that getting what you want can actually lead to a lack of hunger or drive and consequently a diminished quality of what you do. We see it in business when a company has been successful for a few years and gets overrun with middle management. They lose that innovative spirit that got them to where they are, and next thing you know here comes a “hungry” startup that is taking their business. Time to re-tool. Downsize. Get hungry again. We see it with the government as common sense seems to get bogged down in red tape. We see it in ourselves, when things are going great we tend to get complacent. We most likely have seen it repeatedly after a Thanksgiving dinner! Full = loss of motivation and drive.

How can we avoid this trap? After all if we accomplish something, we should be allowed to take a little time to celebrate right? Enjoy the fruits of our labor as it were. Yes… but… maybe it is a matter of what we are focused on in the first place.

“Life is a journey and not a destination”

I see it many times on hikes and trips that ‘getting there is half the fun’.  So maybe it is a matter of balancing our focus on “the goal” with an awareness and appreciation of all that is happening on the journey. That way when a goal is reached, it will be more fulfilling and rewarding due to the experiences gained and enjoyed along the way. Instead of the Hungry-Full-Hungry-Full endless cycle…. Balance.

We live in a world where setting goals and striving for greatness is touted daily. But sometimes we get so caught up in getting to the goal that we are not enjoying the process. Then we reach the goal, or get “full” and find out that we are not as happy as we had thought we would be. We’ve all seen stories of someone who set out to make a lot of money, but then after they achieved that goal, ended up miserable and distraught. So apparently the goal of the money and that “fullness” didn’t seem to satisfy.

We can balance the onward and upward mentality with a little of life’s simple pleasures just by being more aware of things as they happen. Take time to watch the butterfly in the yard, or say hello to your elderly neighbor. Give a compliment to the girl at the convenience store as she gives you your change.

It is little things that add up to big things. So if our “hunger” is more about life and the journey than just the prize at the end of our goals list, maybe we can keep that drive to enjoy life along the path!

That is where “Live Interestingly” comes into play. Not “Drudge along every day until you get to the goal and THEN you get to live interestingly”….. Nope. You choose to “Live Interestingly” every single day. You can’t always choose your circumstances but you CAN choose how you respond to those circumstances. Enjoying every step on the road to your goal is the key in not letting the hunger be your only driving force.

I see this in a couple areas of my life. When I am training my Frisbee dogs for an upcoming competition, it is easy to just focus on the quality of performance and how well I am throwing and if the dogs are in the right place etc. But if I ONLY think of the outcome it is easy to miss the enjoyment of just walking through the park out to the practice field and watching my dogs having fun along the way. If I make the session a broader goal about having fun with my dogs and enjoying their company, it is a win-win.

Likewise if I am practicing my guitar playing, it is easy to just know that if I play this piece of music X amount of times I will get to the goal which is being able to play it well. However, if it is a beautiful song it makes sense to enjoy it every time I play it on the journey! As Mac Davis sang “You gotta stop, and smell the roses”. So putting a little extra time into noticing the beauty of the arrangement, the sounds of the intervals as they cascade into each other, the melody as it twists and turns, the strings as they ring out together and vibrate uniquely with each touch – those are the things that make the process of “practicing” enjoyable. Just racing towards the goal of playing it right eventually leads to burnout when I get there.

So does “Staying Hungry” work? Absolutely. Retain the ‘fullness’ of achieving your goal and keep it from becoming a negative, by broadening  your vision along the way and taking in more of the journey. We can keep the “hungry” drive, but at the same time balance that with a genuine enjoyment of life. That way if we lose a little drive after reaching a goal, we still have the hunger for the journey and discovery and experiences that we encounter every day regardless of where we are heading!

Control Freaks – 3 Tips For Less Stress 24 Feb 2013, 3:44 am

I remember the conversation with my Mom like it was yesterday. I was 19 and she had come to tell me that the Doctor had called and told her it could be any day now that we would have to go say our last goodbyes to my Dad who was in the hospital battling cancer. My first fearful thought was I hoped I would be able to go. At that period of my life I had an alcohol problem which meant at any given time I might be in no condition to go anywhere. I hated that feeling of not being in control.

That moment eventually helped lead me to quit drinking completely, and most likely contributed to my penchant for wanting to be in control of my situation. While this wanting to be in control has helped me to achieve many things and exercising control over your body and mind is usually a good thing, it sometimes leads to the belief that you have to control everything else as well.

Age and hopefully wisdom have shown me that needing to be “in control” of everything all the time can lead to stress, unhappiness, and often do more damage than good. So, my apologies to you Control Freaks out there, but you just CANNOT be in control all the time! I empathize with you. I am a “struggling recovering” Control Freak myself.

Here are three things I have learned that will ease your stress and make life much more enjoyable.

1. It’s  Out of Your Control – Disc Dogging. You have worked tirelessly on a freestyle routine with your dog, and in practice the Frisbee’s are flying right, the entire sequence of tricks flows, and you are ready to step on the field and show the world how it is done. Sometimes however, your buddy has other plans. Maybe they want to go sniff the field, or just NOT run in the direction you have practiced a million times, or even decide that the middle of your routine is a good time to take that afternoon potty break. But it is out of your control. They don’t know how important this is – they are just having fun. So should you – you have to let it go, smile and move on.

2. Share Control – Playing in a Band. Playing with a band is all about teamwork. Well, unless you are a control freak, then it is about getting the team to all do what you want. But I have played with some amazing players, and I have learned if I only have them play what I think they should, I am missing out on all that they can bring to the table. Letting them bring their artistic vision to the jam can be what creates magic! Share control and see if you don’t come up with some great things! But you have to let go to find out.

3. Give up Control – At the Wheel. I usually am the one who drives when I travel anywhere, regardless of who is with me. I like it that way, except that when you are driving it is hard to relax and enjoy the ride. When going on a fishing trip in my friend’s boat however, I am usually not driving, he is. Those are some of the most peaceful times, not just because of the fishing trip, but being out of the tedious decision making process and just going “along for the ride”. That is a good thing to remember in life – occasionally just slide out of the driver’s seat and give up control, then sit back and enjoy the ride, it will keep your stress level down, allow you to see the sights, and maybe even help you get over your freak tendencies.

So for all of you Control Freaks, I suggest this: It is fine to control certain things that are important and within your grasp, but don’t forget to let a few things go that either you cannot control anyway, or that by letting them go will bring a smile to your face and some peace to your soul.

I would love to hear from any Control Freaks out there (either practicing or recovering) – How you deal with letting go of control?

Is Anything Authentic Anymore? 31 Jan 2013, 3:50 pm

I dragged myself out of bed and headed in the general direction of the treadmill. Not an easy task this morning as two long rounds of disc golf yesterday had my legs feeling like lead weights. Usually on the treadmill I listen to Podcasts or Audio books, but that just wasn’t going to get it done today. Today I needed something special for that extra motivation. When I really need to get fired up, nothing works like listening to the music of my youth.

I don’t know why that is, but that is what I needed to hear on this day. So as I searched through the ipod I landed on “Journey”, and the album “Evolution”.

Recorded in 1978 this album was done “Old School” – 2 inch tape, all musicians playing together… and what struck me on this particular morning was REAL vocal harmonies. My goodness, I am a professional musician and listen to both new and old stuff, and have heard these songs hundreds of times. And yet – there was something that hit me. Maybe it was the lack of sleep that put me in a haze laden mental state, but the result was clear. What I was really hearing was… authenticity.

After the album was finished I got off the treadmill and contemplated. Could it be that even someone such as myself has gotten so de-sensitized by the constant barrage of pitch corrected vocals and time corrected beats that hearing something “real” is a shock?

It started me thinking of other things that were amazing as “authentics”, but the copies never stand out in the same way. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech is a great example. When you listen to that speech it is not just the words or sentiments that have meaning; not just Dr. King’s excellent oratory skills or the way he delivers the proper inflection. It is the authenticity of the moment! I have since heard many politicians give a speech that is obviously based off of that same repetitive phrase style, and yet it always seems so…. Well, just not very inspiring. It has the technique but none of the soul.

Of course we live in a world of “reality” TV shows that have little if any reality in them. But this is what we have gotten used to; disposable celebrities and singers who can’t actually sing.

So can we ever go back to authenticity once we have been taken to the dark side of homogenized, watered down lackluster copies? Is it possible that we are all unaware of what is real? Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “A man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions”. Could it be that is where we have ended up, having our minds “stretched” to a place of mediocrity?

Sometimes people try to capture the “real” by consciously emulating what it is they think makes it so. Much of what we consider authentic is “the way it was back in the day”, especially when it comes to music. The way things are over-produced now with a slick finish and everything perfectly in tune and in time is a far cry from the early Dillon recordings that moved men’s souls. Then Jack White comes along and plays a few chords out of time and sings a few notes out of key and he is hailed as a genius. Maybe he is or maybe he isn’t – can we really tell? Are we being duped into believing something has some of those “authentic” qualities just because it is lo-fi? Or could it be that he, along with a number of others really ARE authentic, but now our skepticism makes us question all?

Well the Journey music got me through my workout and set me on a quest to examine if I could find authenticity around me.

I looked around my desk for authenticity. I saw an old hand crank coffee grinder that my Mom passed down to me, along with an old weathered wooden clock that was over 100 years old. These felt authentic. Then a quick look back at my music collection found AC/DC’s “Problem Child” with Bon Scott’s impromptu lyrics at the beginning, and Charlie Parker “Live from Montreal” blowing liquid improvised lines on the sax. This stuff was real! But hold on. Has authenticity been relegated to antiques and relics of bygone days? Have we lost it in the present?

As my eyes darted around looking for something that would tell me it is still alive and well and can be found with us today, my gaze fell on my dog looking up at me. I looked deep into his caramel brown eyes. He stared back at me with a trusting, loyal, un-selfish look, steeped in absolute pure love. Then he leaned up and licked my face as if to reassure me and prove that this indeed was a love that could only be described as “authentic”.

I smiled at him and he at me, and my hope was restored.

Take a minute and share in the comments where you have seen, heard, or experienced something authentic lately.

3 Easy Steps to Live More Interestingly 7 Jan 2013, 12:20 am

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” … Mark Twain

Want to live interestingly? You need to seek it out like looking for something you have lost! What would you do if you lost your car keys? You would look until you found them because your ability to get to where you want to go depends on that!

Yet many of us get bored or stuck in a rut in life because nothing happens to us, and we don’t seem to have that same “key-hunting” resolve to change things. Here are three ways to get you on the track to a little more spice in your life.

1. Surround yourself with interesting people. This may sound like common sense, but often we see people who just surround themselves with people just like they are. This might work if you are a creative adventure seeker to start with, but chances are if you want to live a little more interestingly, you may not already have that going on.

Seeking people who have interesting careers, thoughts and lifestyles is a great way to start to stretch your interesting factor. Don’t be afraid that you won’t fit in – usually those types of people are very welcoming as accepting the unusual is the very nature of what they do and who they are. How do you find these folks? Interested in rivers? Find the local paddling club and go check out some white water rafters. Like art? Go to some local galleries and get to know some of the local artists. With the internet available there is no end to possibilities to connect with someone doing what you are interested in. Remember, YOU are the seeker – don’t wait for it to come to you! Take action right now on meeting some interesting people before the week is over!

2. Travel to interesting places. Interesting places can be found anywhere. You don’t have to head to the Amazon rainforest or the wilds of Alaska to find them (although those would certainly do the job). You can start by just going to a different restaurant for dinner, or take an afternoon walk in a local park that you have not been to. The important thing is to “remind” yourself that what you are doing is a new and different and interesting experience.

Don’t focus on the same old things: “I am just taking another walk”. But think of things like “I have never seen that view before, or isn’t that a unique tree”. This sounds so simple but what we think about is what we become and if you continue to think that nothing is new – then nothing will be! So stretch your mind into seeing the new and different aspects of your surroundings. Find an interesting place to go, whether near or far and plan it now.

3. “Add on” interesting. I have often got to travel overseas due to my musical career. While that is very interesting in and of itself, I always try to include interesting added adventures. Many times when you are working you don’t get to fully see all the available interesting areas you would like to… unless you plan it. For example when I went to Liverpool to produce a band – I planned a few extra days to tour through Scotland and fulfill a goal to wade in Loch Ness. (Crazy I know, but it is now a GREAT memory!) I could have just left it at the trip to Liverpool, which was awesome – but with a little extra planning I was able to step up the interesting quotient and gain some extra memories.

Take that scenic route to wherever you are going or plan a night of doing something you haven’t done. Plan an interesting “add on” right now to something you know you will be doing this week.

You must be INTENTIONAL about living interestingly!

Don’t just sit and wait for interesting people, travels or things to come your way – plan it and take action on it. Eventually this behavior will become just the way you do things, and you will find yourself doing these things without having to think about them. If you make this part of your weekly planning, six months from now you will look back and say “Wow! I really live interestingly”!

Have you ever made an intentional choice that made life more “interesting” for you? Share your story in the comments below.

5 Tips to Jump Start Your Creativity 12 Dec 2012, 8:39 am

Being a “Creative” is not always easy. The muse isn’t always there when you need her. But whether you are trying to come up with a new song or a new business plan, having the ability to release the flow of the creative juices is an important trick to know.

Here are some ways I jump start those juices.

1. Tap into another source. In other words go for ideas in a place you don’t usually go. As a songwriter sometimes I look at something mundane or mechanical and think of a lyric for that. This is against the usual flowery, romantic thoughts of a “lyricist”, but it is that very abrupt change that sometimes sparks a new idea.

2. Play a different instrument. This works for musicians who usually create on guitar – just sit down at the keyboard and things seem new again. But this can also work for any creative endeavor, if you are a school teacher and trying to come up with a new math project for students, look to your art supplies. Perhaps you can create a painted flow chart that helps explain how to tackle a problem.

3. Find your time. Everyone has a time of the day when they are the most creative. Maybe it is when you first get up in the morning. Maybe it is on your drive to work, or even late at night after the family goes to bed. That is the time you should focus on being creative because it is the time when you will naturally gravitate towards creative things.

4. Collaborate. When possible, bouncing ideas off of another person can help spur on new ideas. It doesn’t even matter if the other person is in tune with your creative objective. Sometimes just telling your ideas out loud to someone helps you see them in a different way.

5. Change your perspective. Creativity expert Edward De Bono in his book “Lateral Thinking” says that you sometimes have to change the way you are looking at what you are trying to do. So unlike numbers 1 and 2 where we use a different source or play a different instrument, changing your perspective keeps the pieces of the puzzle the same but forces you to use them in a way that is not normal. Ask yourself how else could I accomplish this?

Being creative at the drop of a hat isn’t always easy, but if you use these tools to spark a new idea, you will find that you won’t always just have to sit on the couch and wait for the muse to drop by!

Comment below – How do you get your creative juices flowing?

Do You Want to Set a World Record? 24 Nov 2012, 6:48 am

That was what the voice on the other end of the phone asked. Local radio station KYYS was lining up an attempt to break the Guinness world record of 1,322 guitarists playing at one time and wanted me to lead the charge… and the band! My initial reaction was that this could be a mess! Most bands have a tough time getting two guitarists to play together, so what would close to 2000 be like!!???

Tanna from the station told me they had picked the Deep Purple classic “Smoke on the water” as the song, but they needed me to transcribe a version that was simple enough that everyone could play it, but still sounded like the original, and then be the spokesperson to go out and promote the event in the media. I wrote out the tab and notation and then also went to a local music store and recorded a video of myself playing it for their website.  This way anyone could play along to make sure they were practicing it right. With a couple thousand guitarists playing the same song it is somewhat crucial that they all are playing the same version!!

The radio station did tons of promo to get the word out and started signing people up online. I did various radio appearances and was on several TV shows as well playing and promoting the event. Like most guitarists that have been playing awhile, I had always thought that if I never had to play “Smoke on the water” again for the rest of my life that would be fine! And now here I was playing it on radio, TV, teaching it non-stop – kind of like a guitar player’s purgatory! But since it was a classic song and a cool event I swallowed my musical snobbery and jammed out. I am glad I did!

When the day came it was an incredible event. It was at a local minor league ball field and people were lining up to register and get a free T-shirt first thing in the morning. People came from all over – many surrounding states and some even flew in from Germany and London to be a part of it. There were several thousand people in the stadium. The vibe was really cool, lots of families, Moms and Dads with their little rockers all participating together. Several people had never played guitar before and had started off by learning this song to break the record (pretty cool if your first gig was breaking a world record in front of that many people).

Everyone lined up on the field with their axes – no place to plug in 2000 amps so you could either bring a battery operated practice amp or use no amp, or bring your acoustic. I would be leading a full band with a large sound system so once we started it would be easy for everyone to hear where we were at in the song. They had “officials” there from Guinness to check and make sure everyone was playing it and not faking, sort of like hall monitors. After some organizing and many photo ops it was time to start. Since I was leading the music I got to start it off. Shouting “1, 2, 3, 4” and hearing nearly 2000 guitarists start the opening riff was a surreal and amazing experience, and something I may never get another chance to do. While the station had told us we could make several attempts, everyone jammed right through it the first time. After the song finished, a celebratory roar from the crowd and guitars raised in the air in victory rang in the new record.

All the local TV stations were there and did stories, but it was also covered nationally on CNN, WGN, Headline news, the Colbert report, and most importantly it was the number 8 “Play of the Day” on ESPN’s SportsCenter. (And I always thought it was my jump shot that would get me on SportsCenter!)

Overall a great event that I am thankful I was a part of. I had a few friends who were professional guitarists that didn’t do the event because they thought it was going to be a little too “beneath” them… playing “Smoke on the Water” with a bunch of amateurs. They really missed out! It just goes to show you, when you have a chance to do something really unique and interesting, set your pride aside and just let yourself go and have fun – you will be glad you did!

So what’s next……..? Anyone for Louie, Louie???

Welcome to Live Interestingly! 11 Nov 2012, 8:41 am

“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing” …  Helen Keller

Welcome to my blog!

I am excited to have this platform to share a little more of who I am and what I do. As someone who has been an educator my whole life, I really hope to share some things with you that will inspire you to be creative, pursue your passions, and live interestingly. According to my friends I have always led a pretty interesting life.

While I didn’t set out to achieve that in the beginning, I have to admit that I LOVE new adventures and will always “give something a try”, and now in my life I have developed more of an intentional life plan that seeks out those “moments and memories”.

From my earliest memories, I can hear my Mom’s words as she repeatedly told me “Life is too short”. Whenever I would get mad – “Life is too short” for that. Whenever I would worry – “Life is too short” to worry about things you can’t change. She told me time and time again that Life was “too short to not be happy”. And even though it usually takes me awhile to get most things through my thick head, she was patient and kept it up, and eventually I started to buy into that way of thinking. Even though she is gone now, those words still come into play both when I run into difficulties, and when I am faced with opportunities.

So enter this blog – “Live Interestingly”. I think you can live an interesting life in many ways regardless of your “day job”. It is all about creating experiences. I always loved the saying “Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the number of moments that take your breath away.” I really believe you have to be proactive and intentional as you make an interesting life. Or else you may find that you have taken a lot of breaths, but not had a lot of “moments”.

Through my musical endeavors, my disc dogging life, my travels and trips and mountain adventures I will be writing about things that I hope will embolden you to live life to the full. I have been fortunate to be surrounded by incredibly creative people. My life has been spent creating and teaching creativity, and I really believe that one of the secrets to happiness and living interestingly is being able to tap into your creative self. Everyone reading this is creative!! Whether you think you are or not, you have it in you and just need to be able to access it. Throughout these posts I hope to share some tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your life because it should be an adventure!

I love meeting people who live life to the full and really enjoy the ride. They inspire me to pursue the same. Hopefully this blog will serve as a good place to share some experiences, so please subscribe, comment often, and come along for the journey!