Don't die with the music in you, and...
There’s a wonderful saying that I love, “Don’t die with the music in you”. It’s been a bit of a guiding light in my life as I’ve always strived to be someone who actually does the things he dreams of doing. One of these ‘don’t die with the music in you’ areas that I’ve wanted to achieve this year is to write a book.
Around 2 years ago I determined that it was time for me to write a book about fitness. While the intention was there not much writing happened over the next 18 months, so at the beginning of this year I set myself the goal of having my book written with in the next 12 months. The process of setting a goal got me started but over the first 3 months I had only managed to get under a quarter of it written. It quickly became apparent that this was going to be quite a cumbersome and long process as when I had a spare hour here or there I would get set up to write but only be able to actually write for 30-40mins.
Around May I looked at my calendar over the next few months and it became obvious that I wouldn’t be getting much writing done, I had a big workload ahead of me and I had a lot of travel for work coming up. Within the next 3 months there was only one week where my life wasn’t stupidly busy. I thought to myself ‘maybe if I could take a week off work, hire a batch and go away I could try and knock my book out in a week’. While I hope my book will become a massively successful best seller there’s a chance that it could be that thing that I tried but never went anywhere. So the idea of me taking time off work, spending quite a bit of money on the cost of production and lost income, and leaving all our ‘life responsibilities’ to my partner Jo, did make me wonder if I was being selfish. Also the week I was taking off was only 2 weeks from when I had this initial thought.
Over the next couple of days the thought of doing this embedded itself and I was stewing about it constantly. Deep down I knew I wanted to but my concern about me being selfish was stopping me from approaching Jo about it. As the clock was ticking towards the moment where the opportunity would be lost I decided that I would see if Jo was ok with it.
So one night I let Jo know about what I was thinking, how my book wasn’t happening and that I saw this as an opportunity to get it done in the next couple of weeks. Her response was amazing. Without a moment to think about it she said ‘You have to do it, we can make it work’. Within the next half an hour she was looking up batches for me and helping in every way possible to make this work. This moment reminded me that I’m a lucky man to have Jo as my partner.
99% of the goals we achieve in life aren’t achieved alone. Even the ones that seem like they are a one person task will require emotional support. People are a massive part of us being successful and it is for this reason that we need to surround ourselves with people who support us towards our growth. Those people who back you, who take actions to help you, those special people who want you to succeed.
Another area to consider here is: How do you support others in their growth? Are you someone who provides others the kind of support they need to keep moving forward? When people spend time with you do they feel their life is better? What do you do to create these feelings in others?
Getting my book written is one of the proudest things I have ever achieved and it has reminded me of that favourite saying of mine. But maybe there should be an extension to that saying, maybe it should be: ‘Don’t die with the music in you, and make sure you surround yourself with amazing people who will support you towards you living this way’.
If you enjoy my pieces you can get them emailed to you when I put them on the internet. This way you won't have to come back to my website to check when a new piece is out. Don't worry I won't spam you. If you want to join up just put your details in here: