What is ‘Enough’ for you? | TQW#3

This is often a step that is missed out in goal setting. We all aim for the stars, ask for loads of money and time and achievements etc. But the big problem there is this.

What do you want once you have gotten all of those things?

When is it going to be ‘enough’?

This really got me thinking this week as I had fallen into this trap myself.

I had asked and worked towards all these external achievements and I had gotten them. But it wasn’t enough. I still felt like something was missing.

I hadn’t defined what ‘enough’ was.

Why is that important?

So that you can stop and take stock and create time for a more meaningful life. A life where you do the types of things that you want to do because you are that person. You take time to meditate everyday even when there is a big deadline, you take the time to build lego with your kids, you go for walks, you have coffee with friends, you enjoy your life.

So this week take a moment to think about what ‘enough’ is for you. This ties in really nicely with the topic I discussed in the first issue of TQW; how does your activity tie in with the person you want to be? Followed by the simple fact that your productivity is not a measure of your worth (TQW#2).

Define when you would feel like you have enough. If anything it will help you to distill your goals and also enable you to think about your life outside of those goals.

To create a more balanced life that keeps your happiness, wellbeing and contentment at its heart.

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🖍️ I’m loving Factory Summers by Guy Delisle

I have been a fan of Guy Delisle for quite a few years now. It all stems back to when I was a student and each week I would scour the small press shelves of my local comic book shop.

I stumbled upon a group of graphic novelists who would use their novels to document their daily lives. I fell in love with the whole idea. In fact at that time I was exploring keeping “visual diaries” anyway so I can only say that the universe was giving me a friendly nudge and a wink.

Guy’s book are almost all him documenting his time in other countries. His wife works with Doctors Without Borders and as a freelance animator and graphic novelist he would go with her. He would then document moments in his time in each of these countries.

The thing I love in all of his novels is his ability to capture the mundane in a magical way. On the flip side he would be able to make the most unusual occurrences seem quotidian and normal. His visual style has informed my own illustrations so much.

He manages to capture so much life with very few strokes. It’s awesome. This particular book, Factory Summers (Affiliate link), is about two summers he spent working at a paper mill in Quebec when he was a teenager. It sounds pretty mundane but he ties it in beautifully with his somewhat dysfunctional relationship with his father.

This one is a quick read but leaves you thinking about life in that kind of staring-out-of-the-window way.

🔍 I’m pondering the idea of ‘proof of potential’

I heard this on a podcast interview with the YouTuber Emily D. Baker. She mentioned this phrase in passing but it completely leapt out at me.

This is what I have been doing with my YouTube tutorials, courses and blogs.

I went into the world of production music and life as a composer with only the biggest Hollywood composers as my point of reference for what could be achieved. So at that point in my life the proof of potential was that if I moved to LA and worked my way up the music departments of the big studios and perhaps became a composer’s assistant I would be able to make it to the BIG TIME!

That all seemed very daunting and quite frankly I wasn’t even sure if I wanted that life.

What I want to show people with my content is another type of proof. I know I am not the best composer, or the best producer or the best teacher and that doesn’t bother me.

I want to be proof of potential for you. Proof that you can have an out of date computer system, work quickly and not mix your own stuff, use loops and other “shortcuts” and do all of this from the comfort of your own home.

You don’t need a fancy qualification or an expensive studio. You don’t even need to know exactly what you are doing. As long as you follow that passion, excitement and curiosity you will get there.

Where ‘there’ is I don’t know. I am not even sure I know where it is for me. But that doesn’t matter, I just want to have fun doing things that interest and excite me.

I hope that I am proof of that potential.

It’s not about those who are the best or most gifted, it’s about those who stick with it for the fun.

This is why I love podcasts so much. The interviews I listen to are almost always “everyday people” who pursued something they were curious and/or excited about and made something really special. As a result they are all creating lives they want with their own freedom built in.

🔨 I’m enjoying Limitless with Chris Hemsworth

Limitless is about Chris Hemsworth finding extraordinary ways to deal with his own stress and anxieties.

I love shows like this for the simple reason that we all tend to put people like Thor, I mean Chris Hemsworth on a pedestal. You may often find yourself saying things like, “Oh what do they have to worry about they are loaded and famous!?”

Within the first 5 or 10 minutes we hear Chris talk about his middle of the night insomnia (MOTN) and the stress he encounters in his everyday life.

As a fellow sufferer of occasional bouts of MOTN it caught my attention pretty quick. Then he talked about the stresses of taking three kids out for a meal and I was sold! (I have three kids too and taking them out for meals can be somewhat challenging).

The whole premise of the show is to expose Chris to stress so that he can develop the tools to deal with everyday stress better.

The theory underpinning this is something that my wife taught for years (as a Hypnobirthing instructor and trained hypnotherapist) that your body cannot tell the difference between a real event or imagined thought.

If you think about something stressful then your body will react as if it is under threat and do all it needs to do to protect you; cortisol, adrenaline, reduce blood flow to certain major organs etc.

So even if you are not in any danger, thinking about it will have the same affect as actually being in danger!

Mind blown.

This is the premise of the show. To understand that principle and to learn to use certain tools to deal with this. These fears have to be dealt with internally.

If you have ever suffered from anxiety, overwhelm, stress (yes all of you) then you should at least watch the first episode. Plus it’s good fun.

🧘‍♂️ I’m practicing my meditations

Some of you may or may not know this but I am a trained energy healer. Namely Pranic healing. It has done wonders for my life and has given me some amazing tools to deal with emotions and physical ailments. Plus it’s fun waving crystals around.

This may not be your bag but one of my teachers is a chap called Master Stephen Co.

Each week he does multiple live talks and meditations.

The amount of wisdom and life lessons he dishes out are immense. If you are intrigued by meditation then go check out his facebook page.

There was one particular talk and meditation that I really enjoyed recently.

The gist of it was that if you feel other people’s emotions it is because there is a tiny part of that emotion in you that is being triggered. If you feel other people’s anger that is because there is a seed of anger within you that is being triggered.

It’s sympathetic resonance of emotions; one object vibrating at a certain frequency is causing other objects that contain that same frequency to vibrate.

At first when I hear that I go “hey no way dude, I am not angry you can go f*ck yours…..Oh wait, maybe I am pretty angry. Maybe he’s right!?”

His response:

“You are feeling those things because you are being given the opportunity to get rid of them” - Master Co

By practicing things like prayer, meditation etc we can cleanse our body of some of these things.

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🗞️ Posts and stuff:

Ask Rich - Timelines for Releases, Syncs, and Royalties - The Trailer Music Composer’s PodcastIn today’s episode we get a question from Stephen Tallamy, in fact it is a string of excellent questions about what composers should expect in terms of timelines; of releases, first placements, receiving royalties, and track performance. A ton of …

How to structure your trailer music for the winIn this post I break down how to structure trailer music so that you can create amazing cues that are ready to win trailers

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💬 Quote of the week:

“The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention” Flannery O’Connor

I love this quote for the simple fact that it embraces that “dreamer” that we have all been accused of (especially at school). It’s ok to stare out of the window and dream. It’s ok to be fascinated by the world around us. It is amazing.

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