Be the best person you can be

For years I have been focused on the goal. I was always quite good at enjoying the journey as well, for most parts anyway. I work hard and I am proud of it. But sometimes the work becomes so much of a focus that we forget about our selves. We work long hours, sleep less than we should, skip lunch and fuel our selves on coffee… Now you know I love my coffee and I believe there is nothing bad about that. But it should not be a replacement for real food. We blindly work at success in our chosen field. We often become a part of entities, where it is not only our goal, but also everyone else’s who is involved. And this can add to the pressure, where you are working hard not only because you want to succeed, but also because you don’t want to let others down. In a middle of all that, you can get lost, you can forget why you do what you do.

But less than few years back I had a moment of clarity. I found my focus again (hiding under a dirty pile of laundry…). Decided to concentrate some of my efforts in me, just me. I had been denying myself the internal need to concentrate on my own songs. I have worked in several bands over the years and written music for most of them. But there is something limiting writing for an entity (band). You need to think of the limitations of the band, you need to consider that other members will hear the songs in a different way, and the result might be far from what you had in mind. These are some of the beauties of being in the band, but after so many years those limitations were holding back my songwriting.

Once I made the decision to do something that was cut off from all of these ties, things started to happen. The songs stated to fall out of me like apples from a tree at the end of the summer. And my focus shifted. I no longer was not solely concentrated on the goal. I was concentrated on improving my self as a person. This became a big thing! I started to look after my self more. I found more balance in my life. And surprisingly, the more I concentrated in trying to be a better person, trying to improve my self, the better my songwriting became, the better my singing and guitar playing got, the better my blog writing got 🙂 And it has made me genuinely happier person. Still I have long journey ahead of me, I am fully aware of it. But I thought me sharing this with you might be helpful for some of you as well.

So what would happen if for a while you did not concentrate on things like making money, but sharing something great with the world. What if you concentrated on making your self a better person? It can be small steps, like drink less alcohol, eat better food, move more, listen more, take time to enjoy moments. Try not to concentrate on what you should get or where you should go, but instead concentrate on trying to be the best person you can be in the moment you are right now. You see many of our actions have long-lasting effect. The past is past, and we can not predict future, so why not live in the moment?

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE