Tag Archive for: Self Improvement

Failures and Mistakes Feature MEME

There are no failures and mistakes.

Failures and Mistakes

 

You’ve heard that before, rah, rah, rah.  It’s designed to make you feel better, right? It’s so prominent on social media with every other vapid affirmation that we hardly even read it, we almost never stop and soak that in.

 

I get it, believe me!

 

What if there was a REAL GOOD explanation or connection that could be made to spiritually break down exactly what “no mistakes” and “no failure” means?

 

Failures and Mistakes North Star

What if this enlightenment clarified that mistakes and failures were by design; a working part of a grand plan?

 

What if failures and mistakes were necessary?

 

What if this rationalization cleverly explained to your soul’s satisfaction that every failure and mistake was your spiritual “North Star” pulling you back onto your path by causing the failure to happen?

 

As if your supreme destiny said, “Nope, you’re close but no cigar my friend; TRY AGAIN because you’re supposed to be over here.”

 

Maybe that was with a relationship.

 

Maybe a business decision.Failures and Mistakes Connection

 

Maybe a job that you’re not supposed to be at.

 

Maybe a supposed “lost” opportunity that shook your emotional foundation to the point of complete collapse HAPPENED FOR A REASON.

 

Watch this 3-minute video by Oprah. h/t to the 2 Steel Girls (@2SteelGirls) for turning me on to this

OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS 3 MINUTE VIDEO

Your “little mind” is where you are not centered, where you don’t know who you really are.

 

Failures and Mistakes Little Mind MEMEWhen you’re in your “little mind” speed bumps, pot holes, challenges, setbacks, failures and mistakes seem catastrophic.

 

Your “big mind” is where you are centered. You have clarity that you are part of something greater than yourself. I’ve spoken about this before in prior articles but I just love the language Oprah uses here.

 

Your big mind is where you relax and listen.

 

When you have the epiphany that the Universe is always as it should be, you don’t freak out about failures and mistakes.

 

Instead you listen.

 

You become STILL.

 

Failures and Mistakes Listen MEME

You breathe and try to receive the message that your supreme destiny is trying to communicate.

 

Failures and mistakes are quite necessary and happen quite often because they are there to WAKE YOU UP.

 

 

You’re in the wrong job.

 

You’re in the wrong relationship whether it be romantic or artistic.

 

Failures and Mistakes Wake Up Alarm Clock MEMEYou’re wasting time doing this because you’re supposed to be doing that.

 

 

For many of you, the terrifying reality is that your supreme calling is not the way you’ve conceived it exactly, at least not as you see it in your head, in your dreams. That’s scary.

 

 

 

I remember when I came to that crossroads.

 

Failures and Mistakes Crossroads MEME

 

 

The reality for me was that I actually was an artist, but not a musical artist as I had been trying to do.  At least not in the way that I pictured it for so many years.

 

I was there for a reason and as such, there was a tremendous amount of serendipity in my life. That is to say things fell into place often.

 

 

 

That’s the sign of a correct path; serendipity.

 

We had some fateful coincidences in my first band Idols of American Youth, but it was filled with tons of failures and mistakes as well.

 

We had far more seemingly accidental fortune in Kidd Gypsy because that was also supposed to happen.

 

Which is funny if you seriously consider the fact that the singer in Idols was AMAZING and I was the singer/front-man in Kidd Gypsy and, as I like to say, “I had to claw my way to middle management” in the vocal department.

 

 

Failures and Mistakes Claw My WayI was supposed to front the band all along. Talent was there but it just didn’t manifest itself in the same way for me as it did for the Idol’s singer.

 

Then another life changing moment when it was time for me to move on to greater things.

 

I sincerely remember thinking as I packed my bags to take advantage of a non-music business opportunity in Los Angeles that this was a step towards something great, the next right thing to do, and that it was all a part of me getting back to the music business somehow.

 

I knew I was supposed to return.

 

Failures and Mistakes Packed My Bags

I didn’t know how.

 

I didn’t know when.

 

I didn’t know why.

 

I did have faith.

 

I WAS listening to my spirit guide, my North Star, the voice of my supreme destiny.

 

While I was in the electronics business working with a company that had a zero damage prototyping soldering solution (which is God-like when you consider how much the first 5 prototype boards cost for whatever widget your reading this on) the music business was changing.

 

Failures and Mistakes iPhoneOnce the smartphone was invented and became super popular, consumers suddenly had choices in their cars with regards to music selection. The radio no longer dictated what we would listen to; instead we became our own DJ’s.

 

Then I moved on to the financial world and learned to build a team, learned to think bigger from friends like Eric Mitchell, and executed these kinds of plays in real life.

 

Then I lost everything.

 

My business because Wall St. closed its doors.

 

My savings because I had $15k per month of advertising expenses alone and ZERO dollars of income for well over a year.

Failures and Mistakes Cash Flow

 

My house because the market crashed and I was suddenly $250k upside down on an intelligent loan that had me with 40% equity when I signed it.

 

All these failures were my North Star, my supreme destiny pointing me back to the music business.

 

Yes, I was an artist.

 

A vastly different kind of artist that what I had originally imagined.

 

Now the serendipity is happening again BIG TIME.

 

My company doubled the first quarter of this year.

 

In the last month I have had more serious conversations with serious artists about marketing (aka opportunities) than I have had the whole previous year combined.

 

Failures and Mistakes Devastation MEMEI’m supposed to be here.

 

The failures were horrible, devastating, and soul sucking to be sure but THEY WERE NECESSARY.

 

When your big mind understands how necessary failures and mistakes are to your journey, you don’t allow yourself to be thrown by a grade or by a circumstance because your life Is greater than any one experience.

 

Your journey is so much bigger than you.

Failures and Mistakes Bigger Than You

 

The end of this Oprah video is the best.

 

It’s where she always asks people what they would say to their younger self and the answer is almost always, in one form or another, “RELAX”.

 

Everything is going to be ok. It’s really going to be ok.

 

 

Let the failures wake you up.

 

Failures and Mistakes Relax Frog MEME

 

 

Let the mistakes give you pause to be still and LISTEN, and LEARN, and IMPROVE.

 

 

 

 

To be a student of the game requires guts, courage, work ethic, and fortitude.

Failures and Mistakes Wall MEME

 

Guts to risk failures and mistakes in the first place. Yes, you actually have to be willing to fail.

 

Oh, by the way, most people think failing on the dream or mission when they read the statement “You have to be willing to fail”. The Daredevils understand it’s not overall failure that this statement is pertaining to, rather, it’s all the little and big failures that will have to be endured to make the dream happen.

 

Courage to rise up from the ashes of one seemingly cataclysmic failure and move forward in the face of fear to your next mistake.

 

Failures and Mistakes PhoenixWork ethic to provide momentum which gives the brain reassurance that the last failure was but a small speed bump because hard work will easily roll over it.

 

Fortitude to internalize the realization that all the small dents and massive calamities are required to win.

 

I want you to win.

 

Eat these petty setbacks for breakfast, down your coffee, get up off your ass and work harder than you’ve ever worked before.

 

Failures and Mistakes Setbacks Breakfast MEME

This is your dream.

 

Don’t blow it by willfully living in your little mind.

 

Be self-aware of your little mind and your big mind.

 

Don’t be overwhelmed by the difficulty because your life and your career is bigger than any one moment or experience.

 

 

 

Failures and Mistakes Definition of Failure meme

 

Your life is not defined by any one person’s definition of failure for you.

 

 

 

If you’re not at ease with yourself right now, THAT’S THE CUE that you’re on a detour and it’s time to think about a change and LOOK for the next opportunity which is probably staring you right in the face as we speak.

 

Failures and Mistakes I Believe in Me Silhouette

 

Failure is just there to point you in a different direction.

 

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune

 

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Awareness More Success MEME

Awareness is the key element to deserving success.

I subscribe to Tai Lopez’s 67 steps to success. It’s paid coaching and it’s awesome. While I 100% support paid coaching (a resource that most of you choose not participate in which demonstrates a lack of humility, I mean you must already know it all right? But I digress) I’m not plugging Tai’s. I’m all about giving credit where credit is due, and the content of this article was derived from Tai’s 1st step of the 67 steps.

 

Do you think you deserve success?Awareness Obesity Scale

Do you really think you deserve success?

 

Many artists (and normal people) say they deserve success but they’re not really deserving because they don’t do the necessary work that is required.

If you want to lose 100 pounds, you need to deserve to lose 100 pounds.

To deserve to lose 100 pounds you have to be aware of what is required to execute that plan. You must be conscious of how your body works, how many grams of protein, sugar, carbohydrates, etc. should you intake every day.

You must have awareness to avoid processed foods.

Awareness Food Ingredients

 

You have to be cognizant of how your body works with regards to caloric consumption during exercise and sedentary times, then apply that knowledge to your personal situation.

 

 

Are you active at work?

Sitting at a desk?

 

Here’s an awareness example that everyone can relate to.

Remember the day you got your last automobile? It doesn’t matter if it was new or used, awesome or junky.Awareness Car shipment

The day you got it was the day you noticed EVERYONE had that same car. It’s like they appeared all over the road out of nowhere, right?

You became aware of the car type once you owned it and now, even though they were always on the road, you notice them everywhere because your awareness has increased.

Cool huh?

 

 

Becoming aware of what has to be done means you now have a solid blue print to execute the plan.

Awareness Blueprint

 

You only deserve the end result once the plan is executed.

 

Most people choose to be blissfully unaware. It’s easier.

 

 

 

Maybe you can’t be as physically fit as Arnold Schwarzenegger who works out 6 hours per day or LeBron James who is 6’8” 280lbs. with 6% body fat but you can deserve more than you have right now.

You can improve.Awareness Step by Step

 

You can get on the journey of becoming the best version of you; be that physically, mentally, artistically, or all of the above.

 

Each day you have to go to bed a little wiser, step by step you get better and rarely does that happen in fast spurts.

 

Most people in life are victims of their own making. They are focused on the lottery approach to life because they are waiting, wishing upon a star in their lives and their music careers.

 

Awareness Fingers Crossed Image

 

There is no lottery.

 

Tomorrow will not be better just because you believe it will be. If you want tomorrow to be better you HAVE to work today, every day, and take it step by step

 

 

When you earn it you will be deserving of it.

 

There will not be one event that alters your momentum enough that will “change your mind” about committing to your music career. The one event that thrusts you forward will only be a “game changer” if it’s met with the proper, prior preparation.Awareness Lottery MEME

 

That preparation will be the result of work which makes you deserving of the outcome.

 

Without the appropriate groundwork, the opportunity will be blown and result in tormenting frustration for the artist.

 

Have you ever had that happen?

 

Who did you blame for the outcome?

Awareness Blame Piano MEME Image

 

If you understand this concept, your perspective will change and you will become more patient. You will stop blaming the world, blaming your parents, blaming the industry, etc. and get down to the work of deserving more.

 

 

 

To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. The world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people.

 

 

If you are not where you want to be right now it’s because you don’t deserve it yet.

 

 

That’s a simple fact that is always a jagged little pill to swallow.Awareness You Don't Deserve it MEME

 

The world is, in the light of the Universe, a fair place to live. As imperfect as it is, it’s more just that it has ever been in the past. People get rewarded when they are deserving of what they want.

 

I have friends who are incredibly successful and friends that are unsuccessful and I can tell you that my friends who are successful deserve it and my friends who are unsuccessful don’t.

 

 

 

 

What about wealth and abundance?

 

Why does Bill Gates have 60 Billion dollars and the rest of the world doesn’t. You may say that nobody deserves that much, and you may be right,

Awareness Bill Gates “Bill Gates in Poland cropped” by [1] (cropped)Pomme de terre - www.prezydent.pl. Licensed under GFDL 1

“Bill Gates in Poland cropped” by [1] (cropped)Pomme de terre – www.prezydent.pl. Licensed under GFDL 1

 

but he changed all our lives forever. He added immense value to the world. You may believe he doesn’t deserve 60 billion but he certainly deserves the respect for his accomplishments and he definitely deserves more than me and you. Did you know from the time he was 19 years old to 30 years old Bill Gates NEVER took a day off?

 

 

Are you that committed to your own career?

 

 

 

 

If you aren’t why on earth would you expect anyone else to be more committed to your success than you?

 

Why then, would you resign to waiting around until someone sees your potential and acts on it to make a decision to really believe in yourself and commit to your own project?

Awareness Toe in the Water License Sallm Fadhley

Photo: Sallm Fadhley
License: http://bit.ly/1jxQJMa

 

Do you see how that is a victim type strategy?

 

I hear artists say this all the time, “I’m going to just stick my toe in the water and see if I get a good reaction, if everybody freaks out enough for me I’ll jump in.” Or I hear, “I wrote and spent money recording these 3 songs, I’m going to wait until I make my money back on these 3 songs to determine if songwriting is a good career choice for me.”

 

This strategy feels smart because you don’t expend too much energy and money on what you probably honestly believe is a “pipe dream”. It certainly feels safer because you don’t have to be that vulnerable, do you?

 

Awareness Vulnerable Comedy Tragedy

 

If you make sure you’re not in a position to be too emotionally vulnerable, then you won’t be too upset if it doesn’t work out.

 

 

 

You don’t believe in yourself because nobody else does so it’s easy to blame the world for your lack of progress. You can’t succeed because the world doesn’t see you as amazing and therefore it’s not your fault, right?

Awareness Blame Image

 

 

 

You’re a victim of your own unsuccessful strategy simply because you are unaware of the vicious cycle you are caught up in.

Awareness Vicious Cycle image

 

I want y’all to win.

 

Life is about the journey which is what is happening right now, not the end result.

 

I want you to focus on the intangible skills like awareness, wisdom, patience, focus, execution, and experimentation.

 

 

 

When you come to the awareness that there is no failure in experimentation, you enter into a life perception that will breed success.

 

There is no failure in experimentation. When an experiment doesn’t work you learn what doesn’t work, you move forward.Awareness Experimentation image

 

You’ve added tremendous value to the answers you seek.

 

You’ve learned something, you’ve progressed, therefore NO FAILURE.

 

You eliminate a speed bump or a pot hole in the system.

 

When you view every challenge as a black or white outcome, that is to say success or failure, you lack the awareness of complexities and therefore you are much harder on yourself during the losses OR you get too cocky on the wins which results in a head trip.

We’ve all met that artist.

Ugh.

 

I want you to read this excerpt from a letter written by a prisoner sentenced to life without parole in Sing Sing Maximum Security Correctional Awareness Will Durant QuoteFacility. This came from a book written by Will Durant entitled On the Meaning of Life, which was a compilation of responses to letters he sent out asking about the meaning of life.

 

Read this carefully and let it sink in.

 

 

I do not know to what great end Destiny leads us, nor do I care very much. Long before that end, I shall have played my part, spoken my lines, and passed on. How I play that part is all that concerns me.

In the knowledge that I am an inalienable part of this wonderful, upward movement called life, and that nothing, neither pestilence, nor physical affliction, nor depression, nor prison, can take away from me my part, lies my consolation, my inspiration, and my treasure.

                                                                                                          Owen C. Middleton (convict 79206)

 

Here are the takeaways from this letter.

 

The most important line to me is “HOW, I play that part is all that concerns me.”Awareness Colin Powell Quote

 

Don’t focus on bad business deals (everybody has them), rejections (we all get them), health issues (most people have some kind of health issue), difficulty keeping the band together, difficulty getting gigs, difficulty getting the money you need to record (when you deserve it, the band, gigs, and money will come), difficulty marketing your music (all the knowledge you need is out there and a ton of it is free If you are aware of what to look for), and traumas (most people have some kind of remarkable personal trauma).

 

Instead, focus on the reality that you are in a competition with yourself. YOU must get better and you are the only one that make that happen. Be aware that you are an inalienable part of the upward movement called life and you aspire to make a dent in the artistic part of this upward movement.

 

Donald Rumsfeld was quoted as saying, “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.”

 

Awareness No Excuses Meme

 

Awareness is what is required to search for the unknown unknowns.

Awareness is key to being a student of the game.

 

Ideas won’t make you a great artist.

 

Supreme talent won’t make you a great artist.

 

Work, awareness, and endless experimentation is what will make you compelling, iconic, and contagious.

 

When you become aware of that, you will find fulfillment in your artistic endeavors and not for nothing, your bank account will reflect it.

Stay Mistake Twitter

In

Tune

 

PS: If you haven’t already downloaded my free Music Marketing On Twitter book, please enjoy it on me. Go to GiftFromJohnny.com put  in your name and tell us where to send it. It’ll teach you how to get 1,000 new targeted followers every month for just 15 minutes per day.

 

 

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