Last Monday, I posted a list of ideas about How to Take Your Passion and Pay the Bills. I said I wasn’t quite sure what would happen with the list. In the past week, I’ve decided (*wink*) that most of the items could use some further explanation. So let’s start with number 1: Decide.

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Oprah Winfrey says “Nothing happens until we decide.” (I agree.)

We can spend a lot of time making decisions. We get stuck. We procrastinate. We spin round and round, looking for THE ONE PERFECT answer. (Well, I do, anyway.) We’re cautious (because we’re afraid). After all, we want to make sure we’re making the right decision.

We’re unable to separate deciding what to do from figuring out how to do it.

For example, when deciding to change my entire life by returning to school, it took me a long (long, long) time and a lot of steps to get there.

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Looking back, all the time and steps I took to make that decision were really about getting ready to make and keep a commitment.

(Plus, I believed I could find out EXACTLY what I was getting myself into without actually doing it. Oh, it’s a good thing, I started studying singing spontaneously! *wink*)

I’ve learned from improvising that the seed of an idea can be enough. That not every “i” can be dotted or “t” can (or should!) be crossed before you commit to trying something. That you can work things out as you go. That you can start and stop and start again.

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Once I decided I wanted to sing (and maybe even try to make a living doing it *smile*), I was able to focus on and put my energies toward that. I could ask questions and find answers and get support.

You may not have found your passion yet. That’s okay.

You can decide to look for it.

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Reminder: The next Songtaneous session is this Saturday, October 10.
Visit the Events page to see the entire Songtaneous schedule.

How to Take your Passion and Pay the Bills

1. Decide
2. Commit
3. Start talking
4. Start walking
5. Be flexible
6. Be patient
7. Get help
8. Act as if
9. Use what you know
10. Share what you know
11. Repeat

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Alright, I have to acknowledge that I’ve been procrastinating.

(Yes, again. Sheesh! *eye roll*)

Several weeks ago, I jotted down the list above about how to turn your heart thing into a smart thing. These are things I’ve found myself doing as I make way from publishing professional to musician.

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So Friday before last (in a nod to #3) I posed a question about taking your passion and using it pay the bills. But since then, I’ve been hemming and hawing. Should I write a series of blog posts? Should I write an ebook? Should I wait until I’m smarter? Richer?

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One of the things I practice over and over (and over and over and over) again in improv is trusting my instincts. When you sing spontaneously, you edit in the moment. You have to learn to rely on your instincts to show you what has potential and what’s just “shiny.”

I think this has potential. So here’s the list. It might become a blog series or an ebook.

(It might just be this list. *smile*)

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P.S. I’ve posted the 2009 Fall-Winter (shudder) Songtaneous schedule on the Events page. Hope to sing with you soon! ~sg

I started this summer excited about all the great things I was going to do with my spontaneous singing work. Audio files and how-to videos and worksheets and spontaneous singing classes and recording projects and …

Well, summer is moving along (It’s FINALLY hot in MN; tho I think I’m the only person happy about it. *smile*) and nothing’s happening.

I’m not moving. At all.

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Okay, that’s unfair. I’m moving in circles and fits and starts. I’m drafting and rewriting and scribbling and editing. I’ve written a bunch of outlines and I’ve got legal pads full of cryptic notes. But I’m not producing. There have been no “products.” I haven’t finished anything. Ideas that seemed exciting and dynamic and inspirational at first, loose their luster … quickly.

Now, for a while I could justify this lack of progress. I was working full time. I was doing a lot of behind the scenes clean up and organizing on my blog and my web sites. My singing group was reworking our vision statement and picking directions for the next year. People visited me. My friend died. I was sad and busy.

And … I didn’t want to just throw something up to say I had done it. I wanted the stuff to be good.

Hmm. I began to suspect something else was going on.

Sarah, meet Procrastination — and her fraternal twin Perfectionism.

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Procrastination and Perfectionism, may I introduce you to my friend, Improvisation?

So once I realized I’d been spending the summer palling around with Procrastination and Pefectionism, I asked myself “When I’m holding back in an improv, what do I do?”

• Check out why I’m waiting. (Do things feel unstable? Am I lacking a sense of the whole piece?)
• Allow myself to start. And stop. And start again.
• Allow myself to change directions
• Sing one idea at a time
• Set my intentions
• Trust my intuition and instincts
• Commit

I’ve learned from improv that fits and starts can work. That not every idea will start at the beginning and move to the end. Sometimes you have to find your way into what’s happening any way you can. Sometimes the middle or end happen first. (Then they become the beginning. *wink*)

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The other thing I’ve learned is that even if I’m unsure of what I’m doing, I have to commit. You have to sing your ideas with conviction to figure out whether or not they’re going to take you anywhere.

So … I commit to develop a product for this blog by the end of summer. (Ooh … I cringe just typing it. That’d be Perfectionism rearing her head.)

Let’s try this.

I intend to organize some of the information about spontaneity and singing that I’ve been accumulating and share it with you. The sooner the better.

There, that sounds perfect.