Resilience

In our last conversation, we talked about the journey from history to mastery.

We acknowledged that your past is more of a map, and less of a life sentence. But as you begin to steer toward mastery, you will inevitably hit a wall—the devastating realization that the old road you were traveling has completely washed out.

It is not my nature to share much here about my personal challenges, but as you know, since October of last year, I’ve been dealing with quite a lot. It took most of 5 months to finally be diagnosed with MG (a chronic, non-fatal, auto-immune disease).

Less than one year after retirement from nearly 40 years of university voice teaching and 50 years of church music, it looked as if my personal road was not only washed out but turned into a Grand Canyon of life-level challenges.

When something like this happens to us, the world likes to preach a single word: Resilience.

We are taught that resilience means being unbreakable. We are told to grit our teeth, stand firm, and weather the storm until things go back to “normal.” But that version of resilience is a trap. It forces you to expend all your energy defending a ghost.

True mastery requires a different kind of strength.

I know the Universe has different ways of bringing truth to us. But I found it in a way that felt to me to be completely random. While visiting my daughter in Norman, I walked into a room in her home and there on the wall was this statement:

It takes strength to feel the full extent of your feelings,
even if it knocks you off your feet.
It takes courage to try something new, fail, and try again,
and to ask for help when you need it.
Resilience isn’t staying steadfast on a path that no longer exists.
Resilience is doing the messy, hard and slow work of creating a new life
when returning to the old one is no longer an option.

To move from history to mastery in singing (or in life), you must let go of the illusion of return.

You cannot conquer a new peak if you are still clinging to the edge of a collapsing cliff.

It is going to be messy.

It is going to be slow.

You will try things that do not work, and you will have to dust yourself off and pivot.

These are not signs of weakness; rather, they are the exact process of growth.

So, here’s my Call To Action for you:

• Stop trying to survive the old life.
• Cross out the idea that you must be an unyielding statue.
• Give yourself permission to feel the weight of what was lost; and,
• Use that same gravity to ground yourself as you build what comes next.

The old path is gone.

The new one starts exactly where you are standing.

Step forward.

M

#majovta
#dothereps
#vocaltraining
#mentalconditioning
#resilience