Music Careers & Getting the Most Out of Them
"Yes" is a passive choice, it's natural to say yes to something when life presents you with an opportunity. Most people would easily say yes to something like getting a stable job, even if it requires full-time work that they don't enjoy. What's hard is knowing when to stop-- knowing when to say, "this was necessary to make ends meet, but now it's not. It's not what I want, it's not going to lead me where I want to go." My personal story: When I was applying to colleges during my senior year of high school, I ended up applying to 17 different schools (about $1000 dollars in application fees alone). At the time, I had little faith in my musical ability, and not one of those 17 schools was a music school (oh the irony...). I became completely invested in my decision, and after evaluating everything, I made a decision to attend Trinity University. When I got there, I loved all the options I had, I loved the campus, the freedom, the people, even the food. The professors were amazing, the dorms were huge, I was getting a great education, and my parents were happy. However, I wasn't. There were a lot of things I loved about Trinity, but I wasn't happy. Within 3 weeks, I was filling out my applications to Berklee college of music, and the University of North Texas music school. I transferred to UNT the next semester, and for the same reasons I will transfer again to Berklee during the summer '09 semester.There was nothing easy about making this choice, and in fact it was a potentially very stupid decision. I had to completely move all my stuff hours away, leave all my friends and start completely over. There was also the fact that I might not receive transfer credits, or be able to take the classes I want, and of course there was the moment I would have to tell my parents that I wanted to leave a top-ranking private school to pursue a music education. I could have dwelt on this decision to the point of exhaustion, and at some points during the process I did. But then I asked myself, "Nehal, what do you want?" "Where is Trinity University going to lead you in the next 5 years?" I saw where my where my life would lead me if I stayed on my current path, and I wasn't happy about it. I stopped worrying about all the things that could go wrong, and suddenly it wasn't even a decision anymore, it was what I had to do. The thing about this decision was, I wasn't really even unhappy at Trinity University, I was perfectly content. But I certainly wasn't working to my greatest potential, and I wasn't passionate about what I was doing. It's really easy to get caught up in being content, but contentment is worse than unhappiness. If you are unhappy, at least you know you are unhappy, and you can do something about it. If you are content, you might stay that way for a long time before you realize, "This isn't what I want," and by that point it may be to late. Don't get trapped: How can you avoid the contentment trap? First, you need to have a very clear idea of what you do want out of your life (I recommend checking out my article on visualization). Constantly keep this idea in your mind, and constantly question everything. Ask questions similar to the ones I asked myself: "Will this lead me to my ideal life?", "Will I still be happy in 5 years?". Don't over-think the consequences. That's what I did for a while-- I mean, why would someone apply to seventeen schools unless they were really unsure about what they wanted? The decision is so much easier than you think, when you get in touch with what you really want, and have faith that you can achieve it. Once you do decide what you want out of your life, however, any choice you make that is not congruent with the ideal is a product of fear. I could easily have majored in business or engineering like all of my friends did, and taken a part time job at Taco Bell or a clothing store, but I didn't. Instead, I decided to pursue music school, and created this website. And let me tell you, I am happier than I have ever been. Every second of work I do is work I want to do, and every ounce of it leads me one step closer to my dreams. Don't ever hesitate to say "No." to an opportunity that you don't need to take. Don't worry about leaving all your options open like I did for so long, just kick out the ladder and go for it.
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