I want someone to tell me I don't have to perform. To say, "Forcing yourself to perform is a waste of your time. Go do what makes you happy. Go with the flow. What comes easily. What feel fun. Where is there less stress. Don't try so hard. Try easy! You love writing. You love recording. You love making films. Put your energy there. Focus on building your skills and your collection of work. Maybe later you'll perform. When the time feels right, you'll perform. It will come naturally. You are not a lazy person. You do what you want, so if you aren't doing something, it's because you don't want to...or at least you don't want to bad enough. You know how to push yourself. You know how to face your fears. You can do whatever you want. Stop putting such stressful pressure on yourself because it's stifling your joy and your creativity. You live in constant fear of having to do things you don't want to do. It's wearing you down and you need to ease off. Stop listening to other people's advice. They are not you. They are not walking your path. If you do take advice, take it from people who are where you want to go, who live how you want to live, who are how you want to be. Ignore everything else. Everything else is advice for someone else. Stand your ground and sit up tall, confident in what you know you love and want. Fuck everything else." That's what I want to hear. But instead, this is what I hear, "You're such a good singer. You should perform." -- "OMG, your voice is amazing. You should make an album!" -- "Wow. You're so talented. When are you going to perform?" -- "I love your voice! You should do open mics!" SHOULD SHOULD SHOULD. Everyone is telling me what I SHOULD do and yet not once does anybody say, "Wow, your voice is beautiful. What would YOU like to do with it?" Not once does anyone give me the chance to surprise them with my creative ideas. Open mic is not that interesting to me. I would rather write new soundtracks for old movies, go on a songwriting roadtrip where I met musicians in different cities to collaborate on songs, surprise people in a public bathroom with a pop-up concert, organize a flash mob music performance on a public city bus, write whimsical narrative songs and turn them into beautiful trippy music videos that mesmerize people so they listen long enough to hear an inspiration message that changes their life a little. These are the ideas that make my eyes sparkle. This is how I want to show up in the world. Sprinkling music throughout the world in unexpected ways to add surprise and texture to people's lives. So no, thank you for the suggestion but I'm not particularly interested in open mics. For whatever reasons, forcing myself to go out and perform in a dark empty bar at night is distracting me and draining my energy away from the more fanciful visions that set me on fire. I will swim up against current and let go to cruise with my own flow, although it may make no sense to you. And for all of you out there who think that open mic is the first and/or only stepping stone towards a musical dream or career, I highly suggest start asking musicians more questions and let these beautiful artists blow your mind and expand your horizons with their creative visions. // Cha
-- Dare, Dream, Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare to Dream
by Whitney Johnson