20s and Great Material

Recently I looked back over the songs on My Favorite 50 playlist.

(You should make one, it’s harder and more fun than you think)

Something jumped out at me.

There is a perceived parallel journey between making great art and knowing-thyself. But the vast majority of the songs were written by artists who were in their 20s at the time…and artists in their 20s don’t know-thyself.

So we’ve got artists making the greatest material of their careers at a time when they’re just starting to learn who they are.

What does this mean?

Self exploration isn’t the biggest key to great material.

Having the time and bandwidth to tinker with ideas goes a long way. Having the time and bandwidth to be curious about other artists goes a long way. Having the confidence to be naively confidence goes a long way.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

It's Growing On Me

It doesn’t happen much anymore.

It’s been a long time since any of us heard a song, didn’t really like it, but then ended up hearing it a hundred more times, finally coming to the conclusion, ‘ya know I kinda like that song’.

We rarely end up hearing songs we don’t really like, and when we do, we definitely don’t make it a point to listen a bunch more times just to see if it’ll grow on us. If we don’t like it, we switch it. Probably forever.

So is the arc of ‘it’s growing on me’ a thing of the past?

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Ease And Tenacity

There’s an ease to this time when you know there’s going to be a next time. But don’t let the ease turn into laziness or lowered quality.

There’s a tenacity to this time when you think this might be the only time. But don’t let the tenacity turn into stalling and excuses.

We need both ease and tenacity to do our next best work. So it’s best to learn how to work with them.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

The Foreseeable Future

How long are we going to do it this way? For the foreseeable future.

But how much is foreseeable and by whom is it foreseen?

We have to be ok doing the best we can with what we have and what we know. That is the only true option. And then if we’re smart, we adjust as we go.

The big brush strokes of the future might be foreseeable but the details (the things that actually pertain to our thing) are complex and always changing in meaningful ways.

It pays to admit that the scope of the foreseeable future is shorter than our confidence might lead others to believe. It also pays to have this type of confidence…as long as we know the truth and keep admitting the unknown.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

What's Your Style?

It’s easy to identify and label others’ style but a lot harder doing the same for ourselves.

But each of us definitely have a style…of music, of fashion, of speaking.

So how do you figure it out?

Identify your habits and you’ve just found your style.

Your habits are your style.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple