Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.
John Wooden
If you are like most musicians, the Holiday Season becomes a whirlwind of one performance after another. Whether you are in the chorus, performing as a soloist, have created a quartet for home concerts, are in an opera or are doing a combination of these events, your time, energy and money is used to prepare and do the very thing you love. These three, time – energy – money, are the three key resources we have to work with when accomplishing anything and everything.
Time – Time is a fundamental dimension of human existence. Timing is everything. It comes into play when making split second decisions, such as knowing when to stop at a red light, catch a ball or decide to actually sing that sixteenth note as a sixteenth note. It can be the best gift ever given to another person. We have a sense of time, which differs from other senses since time cannot be directly perceived but must be reconstructed by the brain. Human perception of the duration of time is subjective and variable. Scientists claim that time perception is influenced by both internal-personal characteristics and by external-environmental factors. They call these “time perspective” and “time urgency”. My point is that no matter what time means to you or how you perceive it, it is the one resource we can never replenish. So don’t waste or ignore it – but do choose to recognize that your time is going by. Pay attention and use it wisely.
Energy – Energy is a theme that is finally permeating many areas of complementary studies. Scientists have gone from a conviction that there is no such thing as an energy field around the human body, to an absolute certainty that it exists. Moreover, we have begun to understand the roles that energy fields play in our general overall health. Science suggests we need to keep our mind, body and spirit in healthy alignment. The main reason for the change in outlook is that sensitive instruments have now been developed that can detect the energy fields around the human body. It has long been known that activities of cells and tissues generate electrical fields that can be detected on the skin surface. But the laws of physics demand that any electrical current generates a corresponding magnetic field in the surrounding space. Thus we have something I call our “personal space”. We can extend it and invite others into our space on a personal level when networking or socializing, giving one confidence and we can also extend it to include a whole audience, to make them feel comfortable and accepted when we perform.
Money – Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services. In the past, money was generally considered to have the following four main functions, which are summed up in a rhyme found in older economics textbooks: “Money is a matter of functions four, a medium, a measure, a standard, a store.” Barter was also a long standing measure of payment which required good negotiating skills. We still do this today in our industry; in the beginning of a singing career by you and later by your manager. If you are at the beginning of your career, what is the value of the product you are selling? What is its worth to the other person? Are you going to negotiate your salary for your services or would you consider bartering (an exchange of an item, service, etc.) to gain a benefit or product you need instead of money.
As you can begin to appreciate the importance of these three valuable resources, time, energy and money, know you control all three only when you can recognize each for what it gives you when used consciously. Avanti!
