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PLAYING OUR LIFE SONG
Once I
stumbled into an orchestra's tuning session. It was a shock. Pure
chaos. A clarinet was dribbling out unrhythmic notes in a chord that
clashed with all the brass instruments. The woodwinds sounded like a
roomful of drunk birds. A great orchestra making some of the worst
sounds I have ever heard!
We are like that orchestra. To sound great, we have to be willing to
sound horrible. We have to be willing to experiment, take chances, risk
failure. We have to get in tune in a room where others are checking out
their own instruments and making sounds that can make us cringe unless
we are totally focused on tuning our own instruments.
As tuning and practice time starts to merge into the hour of
performance, you will notice a gradual coming together – maybe a
couple of trumpets putting together a riff they have been discussing. An
oboist and drummer alternating and building a bass bottom.
Then, the hour of performance. The conductor taps his music stand. Every
musician comes to attention. As he points to the different sections with
his left hand and moves his wand in perfect rhythm with his right hand,
sounds fuse. Intricate blankets of sound wrap around the audience.
Musicians, listeners and the music become one.
We are like that in our personal life experience, in our psyches, in the
use of our talents. Just as an orchestra has many instruments, we have
many talents. As we use the magic wand of decision to bring all our
talents into our life songs, we make music for ourselves and for the
world.
Emerson correctly said our callings are in our talents. A survey showed
that 61% of adults over 30 still did not feel they knew their life
callings. All they need to do is to look at their talents. Talents are
built-in magnets pulling us to our callings. Talents and callings are
synonymous.
In personal orchestration, we point with our left hands at the talents
we need on a project and with the wand of decision in our right hand, we
choose when to call in each talent needed to do our thing, our song.
We are also orchestrators of talents and time. The way we use time to
tune and experiment and sound bad is as important as the way we use time
to perform. The two essential ingredients of great orchestral music are
sounds and timing. Every part of our being needs to be reading the same
lead sheet.
View yourself as an orchestra. Personal organization is personal
orchestration. Play your own, beautiful life song.
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