First update on Fat Camp: In desperate need, By my own free will, joining today (in my mind) and they're waiving the registration fee just like I thought they would (there’s no fee, it’s just me deciding to eat better and move more).
Last night I had my friends over for a party/house concert. It’s the third time I’ve ever hosted a house concert. The first was for my first CD release party, the second was for my friend, Katie, and this third one was to celebrate the song commission project completion. We had so much fun. Because there was a party last night, I woke up to a pretty clean and tidy house this morning which makes for a great place to pick up the guitar, look out the window and write a song so I did.
There we were last night: drinking Iowa Wedding Punch, snacking on snacks, talking under the twinkle lights of my ‘youth room-esque’ basement, playing songs, laughing, just having a nice night together for no other reason than because of a group of songs and friendship.
And it got me to thinking. Was last night’s show “a show” or “the show?”
Defining dates in time, delineating between then and now, the life you had before you signed up for Fat Camp (for example) and everything that comes after. Any day we live could be just another day or it could be THE DAY. It just depends on what we’re aiming at and dreaming of.
This is a new idea for me. How could defining one random day as THE DAY be helpful in building a new future? Just like buying that new pair of trainers or joining a new fitness club. We build a new set of habits and new element to our identity by deciding today is the day you step into your new self and start letting go of the old one.
Which takes me back to last night in our basement. It was a wonderful night to celebrate a real labor of love. In the new light of this new morning, part of me thinks that it’s a good place to let go of one identity and practice the stepping into a new version of myself and last night’s concert may have been that “THE SHOW” moment I need to distinguish between what was and what will come to be.
Life Coaching (www.leahbc.com) introduced me to this idea of Before and After delineation. I get to choose my own milestones, I can invent my own important days by which I remember bidding farewell to one things and taking up the banner of something new. Yesterday I was the kind of artist begging to be noticed, getting some notariety and then sinking back into obscurity. Today I’m the artist who knows what she can do and is fearless in the pursuit of doing the best work she can possibly do without apology. Boom.
So last night was THE NIGHT. Don’t worry, I’m not running away from home or never having a party again but last night felt like the place to leave behind a certain artist identity, to close the book on the smallness of my previous aspirations and the perfect night to mark the beginning of the next chapter.
Sometimes you gotta burn the ships so as never to be tempted to go back. 2019 is going to be the best year ever. 75 gigs, writing the best songs out there, co-writing with my friends, collaborating with talented humans and being all in. Just like living in my post-fat camp fit identity before I’ve actually lost the weight, I’m going to live in my Grammy-winning mainstage identity before I’ve any trophy to speak of.
Burn the ship. Mark the day. 2019 is going to be the best year ever.