It’s almost impossible for me to not think of things philosophically. That’s why when I experienced my first Sound-theory class at Abbey Road Institute, Johannesburg, I was blown away by the concept of sound being something that fluctuates up and down – in cycles.
At times these cycles occur more frequently, at others they seem long and drawn out. This concept inspired my topic for this blog post – The ups and downs of life, and its continuous learning curves.
What I hope to share with you is the learning curves in my audio career over the past month, and what they meant for me. You may relate and be able to apply some of these thoughts to your own experience.
The first thing that stood out for me this month was the concept of taking on too many jobs at once, just to pay the bills. Even work that wasn’t paying me nearly what I should have charged. It left me at times often resenting the work I was doing because I had this internal conflict going on:
Did I compromise the quality of my work because the client couldn’t afford what I was capable of doing?
Should I have rejected the opportunity of the project completely knowing that it would drain me?
Should I draw from all my energy resources to deliver a pristine final product at the sacrifice of my mental health?
How could I have approached this all differently?
The second learning curve this month was committing to a project without having any written contract or agreement beforehand. I know this one can be tricky, but I know how important it is to get agreements in writing. Even if I have a half-page document for the client to sign, it would help make things a bit more formal, as I found myself doing work for a client that “needed it done today”, and I didn’t see any financial return initially promised.
This left me feeling resentful as well. This also happened to occur when a client I had a retainer with just randomly decided to drop me, meaning my financial fear for the month sunk in.
The last major learning curve was taking on a project I thought I could perform better on, only to find my efforts less than what the client needed to be delivered. I had to approach the client and let them know that I hadn’t been able to deliver, that I wasn’t going to get paid for the work I had done. Perhaps I could blame the fact that I don’t have the gear that would make my job easier, perhaps I could get discouraged about not feeling skilled enough, but no…that was not the answer.
Now, the reason I am telling you all this is not to sound as if I am complaining or to shed a negative light on the past 30 days, it’s to inspire you.
Hear me out…
Upon reflection on these learning curves, I had to take a look at myself. Where was I getting resentful at others or myself for things that I might have been able to avoid or change?
How could I take responsibility for the decisions I had or had not made? How could I use these learning curves as a means to better my skillset and knowledge, reflect on my resentments, and seek internal personal growth. For there is no use just being upset that things “aren’t going my way”.
What I needed to see, was that there were a few “dips in my soundwave” this month and that I had the choice to recognise the natural upward progression of the wave – I got to choose to gather my thoughts and actions and learn from my errors.
There is never a low point that you cannot move on upward from, that you can’t learn from. Don’t dwell in defeat, anger, frustration. Rather move toward introspection, maturity, and emotional growth.
One tool I use to reflect on things that don’t go well, is to sit with myself, lay out all my thoughts, actions, feelings onto a piece of paper and try to see where I could improve or do things differently next time. And if I get stuck, I go to someone I trust and ask for their guidance.
So today, I encourage you to take a look at the “dips” in your life right now and ask yourself:
“How can I learn?”
“How can I improve?”
“How can I let go?”
“How can I grow?”
Know that when you answer these questions and then follow through with actions in alignment with the things you learn, you will soon see yourself on an upward trend, even if it’s only measurable on an internal basis.