Co-writer Characteristic #5 of 10: Discipline

Discipline sounds scary. Maybe it reminds you of getting being sent to the principal's office. Or maybe it sounds restricting. Who wants to do something they don't feel like doing?

Once you get into the habit of writing, whether alone or with another person, you will inevitably encounter days where you wake up feeling like you don't want to create.

In that moment, you have an opportunity to either follow your feeling (and cancel your co-write) or to show up. In almost every situation, the right choice is to show up. You may feel uninspired until you sit down at the piano; until you talk to your co-writer; until you play around with two dead-end ideas.

Dictionary.com defines discipline as an "activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training."

It reminds me of high school basketball off-season, where we were encouraged to attend optional weight-training sessions at 8:00am on Summer mornings. Who wakes up wanting to go subject themselves to something they don't feel like doing? The dedicated. Be dedicated, and don't be afraid to show up even when you don't feel like showing up.

Keep writing (and showing up),

Ben

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A Week on the Links of Utopia

The truth about pursuing a craft like songwriting or a game like golf is that inevitably there will be days that you feel like you come up short. But our identity as creators is not in the quality of our most recent song (whether good or bad) or how long it’s been since we’ve even finished one. We use the energy of our artistic potential to pursue the craft rather than an individual song. As a result, we can enjoy the process without becoming victims of the foul advice of our own “shoulder devils.”

That’s what I liked about reading Dr. David L. Cook’s book (not a cookbook), Golf’s Sacred Journey – Seven Days at the Links of Utopia. It’s written in novel form, and is currently slated to come out as a feature film in 2011 (starring Robert Duvall and Lucas Black). I highly recommend this book to anyone who:

a) loves golf,
b) loves Texas, or
c) struggles with finding their identity in significant and fulfilling places (all of us).

The book emphasizes the importance of stripping away interference in our lives so that we can learn how to trust and rely on our instinct. There’s so much noise in the world around us that we often don’t take any time to thoroughly reflect on life. Gandhi is quoted as saying, “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” Very true.

As in songwriting, Cook emphasizes the importance of a golfer swinging with rhythm, freedom, balance and patience. We create the best art when we are drawing from our most natural place. The goal of this book is to help the reader break out of the box of fears and doubts that restrict us from being who and what God creates us to be. And there is nothing more exciting than signing off on a song that truly feels like it came from a natural place of integrity. Those are the successful songs, whether or not they ever hit the Billboard charts.

Keep writing,

Ben