Plans and Intentions

Sounds like the title of a song. Hm…

I thought it would be good to write my intentions as well as put my “plan” out there. One of the things I’ve always wanted for my life is for people to be inspired to have/create the life of their dreams. I’ve been chasing my many dreams over the years, and in all of my visions of success, I’ve had supporting and inspiring others as a major indicator. (The dollar amount of what “success” means has definitely changed over the years, too. During the most delirious moments of the dot-com craze, my ambitions had the word “billions” sprinkled here and there. Came close in an all or nothing kinda way. Anyway, today, the success number looks more like the sum of my living expenses. Which is NOT in the billions. Of anything, really.)

I’ve been using a really great structure for expressing intention (I suppose I could start a whole other blog on intention and creating results in one’s life, but I’ll focus on the music. For now…). I find that by being clear about the underlying motivations, and the outcomes you want to create as a result of some activity BEFORE starting it is just so essential.

I like to stand at some point in the mythical/imagined future and look back over the course of everything that happened between the two points of time called “Now” and “Then”. My worldview holds that anything is possible. So when I’m imaginging the end of a project/process, I see a blank canvas. I get to put whatever I want to have happen as outcomes. They’re phrased in the past tense, just as if you were standing N months in the future, looking back on everything with a checklist. And in fact, that’s kind of what it is.

So I start with the results. I brainstorm all the things I want to have happen, and the ones that feel important, I put down. When it comes to defining the scale of a result (100 of something vs. 10,000 of something), I try to find a number that’s realistic, yet challenging.

From that, I start to see all the aspect of the project/activity, and I start to see there’s a larger purpose, reason or meaning that gets expressed in the world through accomplishing those results. I start to feel the “intention” of doing whatever it is I’m about to do. I write a statement that expresses that purpose or intention.

I find that doing these two things – intention and results, are really powerful in keeping me focused, reminding me WHY things are important, and to keep the spirit of what I’m REALLY up to alive and real for me.

So here’s what I’ve got right now:

The Intention
The purpose of this phase of my life is to create an independent music career that makes a positive difference in the world through my music, message and the way I relate with everyone I come into contact with along this journey.

The Results:
– the livelihood, health and well-being of me and my family is entirely supported through my art
– my art improves/makes a positive difference in people’s lives
– I had all the resources and relationships necessary to continue to create meaningful and inspiring art
– I made compromises in my plan, but not in my values
– my life/story served as an example to anyone aspiring to do anything
– every moment of my life was an expression of love, service and inspiration
– I helped create community and connection across divisions of culture

The Plan
Phase 1: “Getting My Act Together”
Phase 2: “Getting It Out There”
Phase 3: TBD

Phase 1 consists of getting a solid 90 minutes of original music written (i’m 2/3 there!), recording a demo, redesigning my website, creating a media kit, developing a podcast and a few other things. The final milestone in this project is a concert for 150-200 people in San Francisco that gets recorded.

Phase 2 is taking all that stuff and doing something with it. PR, pitch to indie labels/distribution/producers, getting gigs in SF, LA, Portland and Seattle and building on the fan base I developed during the election.

Phase 3 right now is simply “Phase 3”. I don’t really know where this is all going to go, but I know what I need to be doing right now. I’ll be updating y’all along the way, so stay tuned!