An organist writing about creativity AND drawing silly comic strips about a piglet and a hedgehog AND doing 10 pull-ups challenge AND writing about it. How many organists do you know who did it or are doing it?
It’s crazy, isn’t it? Of course it is. I should be playing organ more. Everyone would tell me that. But then I would be like everyone else which I definitely didn’t want to happen.
But for some reason I feel compelled to write and draw and do pull-ups and document my process.
My heart excites when I stand in front of my writing stand while typing words into Scrivener. My heart excites when I take my pocket notebook (I finished the 6th one yesterday since I started doing it 8 months ago) and start drawing the frame without actually knowing what exactly I will draw. My heart excites knowing that in about an hour I will go to my garden and jump on those rings only to struggle to pull myself up once five times with 2 minute breaks while picking fallen apples and maybe eating one or two. My heart excites when later in the day I’ll come back to Scrivener and recount my pull-up workout experience knowing that some readers will be waiting to read it online.
If my dream would be to take those fallen apples and make it into an apple sauce, would that be exciting? Would my friends tell me that I’m crazy? Of course not. This is a normal activity which we all do without even dreaming about it.
What about you? What are you the most excited about? Or perhaps afraid of?
Until recently one of my biggest fears were that I will not be able to lose weight. I have a weak will and a big appetite. So I started doing pull-ups. While still being scared of them. We will see where they will lead me.
Back in 2011 I was afraid that my new Secrets of Organ Playing blog will not attract enough readers to start generating some meaningful income and I will always have to work at a school as a music theory teacher. Teaching ear training to kids which they hate. This prospect of being stuck at the dead-end job was terrifying but I was also afraid that my efforts to get out of it won’t go anywhere. However, I did it anyway. A Lithuanian writing articles in English… Fast forward 7 years later and this summer I was able to quit my job.
Nobody believed in me at first. Nobody in my circle understood what I was doing. I didn’t fully believe in this dream myself. But when on March 27, 2012 I made my first $100, I started realizing that this little side project of mine might have some potential in the future. It wasn’t that little, of course, because the blog was occupying my entire free time.
Whatever you are excited about or scared of the most, do it. If your friends or family tell you it’s crazy, even better. Start it now.
No, you won’t be ready. No, you won’t feel prepared. No, you won’t know if it will work. And it might not work. There are no guarantees.
But what’s the alternative? To wait until it is too late?
I hope you can do better than that.
I believe in you.