By Carol Kirkpatrick, author of ARIA READY, The Business of Singing
I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” -Stephen Covey
If you haven’t built a solid career foundation, the faulty foundation you hope is supporting your career might easily crack at the most inopportune time leaving you surprised and in the dark as to what just happened. You can’t skip any of the solid building blocks or your foundation will become unstable.
Once you do have a solid career foundation the learning doesn’t stop. You continue to grow your voice, talent, craft, your tools and skills in all areas including your business savvy. Networking becomes a way of life and you become fierce in your focus of what’s important and which building block might need to be reinforced or adjusted to move you forward. It takes focus, dedication, consistency. Because of that, sometimes others might say you are being selfish or self-absorbed. But that is often said of anyone who, especially in the beginning of their career process, wants to get that solid foundation under them. It means you are giving all of your attention to that moment and the world calls that being present and awake.
Being present and awake is the key foundation block for all that you do in your life.
I think it is possible that others don’t understand and might feel closed out when one is working on a building block with complete attention, being very present and fiercely focused. And I believe that often others are a bit jealous that someone has the ability to completely tune the rest of the world out when spending time working on a their career building blocks. The trick to making your life balanced is to give that same kind of “being very present” to each activity and relationship you are experiencing at any given moment. This allows for and gives you the ability to live your whole life on purpose, each and every moment experiencing the good, the bad and even the ugly, making choices about how you do what you do all along your way. Let me hear from you.
Where are you in building you career foundation? Ciao until next time.
Email Carol at Carol@ariaready.net.
Since retiring from the stage, Carol Kirkpatrick continues to be in demand as a voice teacher, clinician, and adjudicator of competitions including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Combining her knowledge of performance, business, and interpersonal skills, she has written the second edition of her highly regarded book, Aria Ready: The Business of Singing, a step-by-step career guide for singers and teachers of singing. Aria Ready has been used by universities, music conservatories and summer and apprentice programs throughout the world as a curriculum for teaching Ms. Kirkpatrick’s process of career development, making her “the” expert in this area. She lives in Denver, Colorado.
