Last night our phones went off several times with alerts for “severe” weather. The tornado warnings were off to the East, so we were fine. Fortunately, there’s a lot of open space here in Oklahoma, so there was no loss of life and little property damage.

But this got me thinking about the meaning and history of the word ‘severe.’ Sometimes, it seems, weather people in Central Oklahoma overplay their ‘severe weather’ hand. It is true that, most of the time, nothing happens.

Unfortunately, this sometimes results in people failing to take things seriously enough. And as the meme indicates, Okies have even found humor in it.

Merriam Webster’s online dictionary has several meanings for the word ‘severe.’ Interestingly, the one that’s most appropriate for bad weather sits at … number 8 … last in the list.

You hear me say in Vocal Training all the time: “Singing isn’t what you think it is … it’s what it is.”

And the meaning of the word ‘severe’ doesn’t always mean what we’re ‘weather conditioned’ to think it means. Indeed, other meanings of ‘severe’ serve the elite vocal training community (you) quite well:

• Rigorous in requirement
• Maintaining a high standard of behavior or self-discipline
• Establishing exact standards of accuracy and integrity in intellectual process
• Requiring great effort

Wow. That’s strong stuff.

Now — about your decision to engage in vocal training, and your vision for yourself as a vocal artist – how do you measure up to these meanings of ‘severe’?

Are you mindfully engaged in Vocal Training, or ‘just taking voice lessons’?

Perseverance is another one of those words that has meaning deeper than what we may realize.

Let’s look at it:

• Continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition
• The action, condition or instance of persevering

To my way of thinking, the prefix ‘per’ really says it all. From the Latin, it means ‘through.’

Perseverance means we go through difficulties, failure or opposition.

Perseverance encourages us to go through the ‘necessary defeats’ of extended physical and mental endeavor (learning to sing).

Perseverance expects us to go through the process and establish standards of accuracy and integrity in Mental Conditioning.

Perseverance means going through great effort.

Perseverance means going through the mindful effort to commit to strong self-discipline.

It’s week 11.

You’re tempted to coast – but don’t.

Instead: Practice Severe Perseverance.

#persevere
#dothereps
#majovta