Chasing The Ever-Elusive Dream

So I'm sitting at Big O' Donuts here in Cookeville on my new laptop about to go home and hit the hay for the night.  I figured I need to start getting serious about my blog if I'm going to start getting any headway with new students.  I'm really struggling hard with going to the same ol' J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) every day.  I don't sleep much because I try to make the most of my time away from work by soaking up every last minute I can trying to live my life outside of work.


Also, my mind is always working non-stop (except when I'm playing my guitar) so I'm always on the move or obsessed with doing things just for the sake of doing them.  I love to write because that seems to be one of the only ways I can express what I'm feeling in a tangible way that helps me release those thoughts and try to settle my mind down a bit.


Anyway, my job is slowly sapping away all my energy (that and not sleeping).  All I can think about when I wake up in the morning is, "Not another eight hours of monotonous, meaningless work."  All I think about while sitting there in my out-of-date-in-desperate-need-of-a-replacement chair is how bad I want to be at home teaching and signing up new students.  It's my passion.  I can honestly say I've found my calling and have been pursuing it heavily for over a year now.  There have been more downs than ups it seems, but I'm still going and trying hard to make my dreams happen.


My "Dream Journal" notebook is finally completed and I've begun a new one.  There is much to be shared, and now that I have more mobility with my laptop, I can get to work on transcribing its contents.  So much to do, it seems, but again, it's my dream.


Signing off for now since my battery is nearly dead.  Hope to post more often.


For now, check out my official Wanna Play? Guitar Instruction website and let me know what you think.


2:10am
Big O' Donuts

A Hunger for Knowledge

Okay, so I'm sitting at my computer at home at 12:15 a.m., right?  I should be in bed by now!

I've been listening to a lot of business audio books for the last week.  Books like The Millionaire Next Door, The Millionaire Mind (both by Thomas Stanley), Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and I'm trying to get more ready to listen to at work tomorrow.  I'm starting on some books by Steven Covey -- most popular for 7 Habits of Highly Effective People -- and one of Robert Kiyosaki's other books entitled Before You Quit Your Job.


On top of all that, I've been reading some of these types of books as well.  I'm currently on Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking, and I found a book I just had to have about living out your dream career by Delatorro McNeal II called Caught Between A Dream and A Job.  Another book I also just had to have is a more obscure one called Talent to Treasure: Building A Profitable Music Teaching Business by Marcia Washburn.  This last one is a hard one to find anywhere to buy besides her website.

I recently finished a book by Lloyd Steiner called Make A Fortune Teaching Private Music Lessons.  You can read my review on amazon.com.

Lastly, I've been going to my local Books-A-Million (BAM) store to check out some business/teaching music books and found one of the Idiot's Guide books by Karen Berger called The Idiot's Guide to Teaching Music On Your Own.  It's a very extensive book and well worth the $16.95 price tag, but it's geared more towards those that have some sort of degree in music instead of your basic musician like me.  So I've been going there and reading it every time I set foot in the door.  I must have it over half-way read by now!  I'm also following her blog CreateWorkLive right here on Blogspot.

Wish I could say more, but it's way past my bed time.  I've been trying to adjust to an earlier sleep schedule so I can change to day shift and start teaching at night, but no such luck so far on the sleeping end of things.

At least I'm staying quite motivated with all this information rattling around in my head, though.  I realized something today: no matter how much I learn, experience is the best teacher of them all.  So I need to get out there and start teaching!

Thanks for reading.

E

Beginning the Journey

Have you ever had a dream that you couldn't let go of in your mind?  Oh sure, you may have let it sit on the back burner for a while, but it eventually gets hot enough to start screaming for your attention.  Something that gnaws away at your sanity until you decide to do something about it?

Well, I have.

For me, my dreams have always revolved around making music.  From the time I was a child I can remember wanting to learn to play an instrument.  I chose guitar.  I had been playing some piano in church but quickly found out that a piano just isn't as portable as a guitar.  I wanted mainly to be able to sing and play hymns at church because I wanted to be involved in something.

I remember the drive and determination I had to succeed in learning to play.  I'd begged my grandmother (Dad's side) all year for a 2-part video series on how to play guitar that I'd seen in some catalog.  Christmas arrived and with it my guitar videos.  I was ecstatic.  Now all I needed was -- bingo -- a guitar!

Not a problem.  My grandmother (Mom's side) had a junior guitar she'd bought for my younger brother who for some reason at the time wasn't interested in learning.  It was one of those nylon-stringed guitars with a neck as thick as my thirteen-year-old forearm.

I took it home and began learning from the videos on how to play certain rhythmic chord songs like "Tom Dooley," "Amazing Grace," and "House of the Rising Sun."  I also learned how to use the "relative tuning method" of tuning the guitar.  You musician's out there know what I'm talking about.  Along with the chords and the tuning instructions, the booklet that came along with the VHS tapes also had a section on learning how to read music.  "I don't need no stinkin' music notation," I thought, "I have my ears!"

Now I regret not learning how to read music at the same time I was learning how to play guitar, and I'm just now trying to learn how to.  But at least I was able to play after a month or two of banging out chords on those old songs.  I was able to see the connection of how chords were used in songs in similar ways (I didn't know the term "chord progression" until much later).  As a result, I was able to sing and play at church and enjoy being a part of something special.

And so began my love of music and the guitar.  Now, fifteen-plus years later, I have a desire to earn a living sharing this love of music to the people of my community.  Only, I have no clue as to how to start.  Looking back on what I've written here, I see the determination to succeed in playing the guitar and I think if I could just muster up that same determination and utter tenacity I know I could experience that same joy and fulfillment again.

So this is my story.  A continuing saga (if you will) of how I will make every effort to move forward and chase my dreams until they become a reality.  No more day job, being my own boss, working less & making more, working with people, teaching (another passion of mine, though I don't know how to even start teaching guitar; I'm more of a Bible teacher), and the many other benefits that come with being an entrepreneur.

There are many things that scare me in starting up my own business, though.  But that's for another time.  For now, will you walk with me as I journey onward; trying not to look back?

E