Before this pandemic started, my 5-year old son was practicing baseball every week.
After one of the games, his coach awarded a “prize ball” to the best player for that game.
My son didn’t get it and when we came back home, he said “I wanted that ball!”
My husband and I explained to him that the other boy who had earned the best player ball had been working hard and practicing on a regular basis.
We explained to him that this is why the boy had done so well during the game and was able to win the “best player ball” after everything was over.
We thought that explanation would be a good lesson for him to understand the impact of creating a regular practice routine with discipline and dedication (something he had not yet done with his baseball practice).
However, my son looked at us a bit puzzled as we were explaining all this to him.
During those same weeks, I was getting ready to perform a piano recital and I was practicing every day with a lot of consistency.
My son knew that many times I’d have to defer to his dad when it came to playtime so that I could practice – and he’d not always like that.
I was gearing up for a concert so I was very focused and determined to prepare to the best of my ability. So, when it came time to help him further understand why he couldn’t get the best player ball for that day’s game, I shifted the context of the conversation to remind him of my practicing routine with the piano.
I told him, “Do you know how mommy is practicing every day preparing for her big concert? That is exactly the same thing that we are describing you need to do in order to get good at baseball. If you want to earn that best player ball, you need to practice baseball, just like mommy practices the piano, so that you get better at it each day.”
My son’s eyes immediately had a spark and I realized he totally understood what I was talking about.
Suddenly, it all made sense in his mind.
He can see me working behind a computer all day long, and this will not give him a sense of progressively working towards a goal of becoming better.
He can’t see the progress, he doesn’t understand what is going on.
But on an instrument? That is another thing completely!
By watching me practice, he can understand the concept of tenacity, persistence, discipline, commitment, dedication, and so much more. The best part is that I didn’t tell him about practicing in order to achieve excellence, I modeled it for him with my actions.
As a mother, I realized in that moment how valuable it can be to pursue artistic projects that require you to practice on a regular basis, and in this way, to let your actions teach your children.
Similarly, when it comes to my work as a business coach for musicians, the same concepts apply.
I’ve always enjoyed working with coaches who not only know about the things they coach but actually are actively doing these things.
From both the music as well as the business worlds, I’ve always strived to learn piano from active pianists and to learn business from active entrepreneurs.
As a mother, I feel that by making space for my artistic side and modeling the consistency and discipline of practicing and working towards improving my craft, then this is an incredibly valuable lesson for my children to follow in my footsteps.
No matter how much I can tell them about practicing and working towards achieving their goals, ultimately it will be my own actions and the example I set through the pursuit of my artistic projects and creative fulfillment that will teach my kids how to embrace these concepts.
As the saying goes, “you are what you do, not what you say you’ll do” (by Carl Gustav Jung).
Similarly, your kids will follow what you do, not what you say.
Why am I sharing this with you today?
Well, because I think the desire to build a business and a lifestyle that allows for you to have creative and artistic fulfillment at the core of your activities can not only make you a better person and professional, but it can also impact your parenting and your ability to model valuable learning and behavioral qualities for your kids.
The icing on the cake?
This artistic fulfillment and realization can also help you become a more compelling and inspiring musician-entrepreneur and draw people and opportunities to you.
It is because of this that I’ve designed my Musician’s Profit Umbrella blueprint in a way that deliberately makes space for women musicians and mothers to experience artistic fulfillment as part of their business and their overall lives.
I believe this is the best way to not only create a business, inspire your children and potential clients, but also to ultimately live an enriched, fulfilling, and impactful life.
If you’d like to explore how you too could reinvent your life and find ways to create space for artistic fulfillment, then I invite you to apply for my Musician’s Profit Umbrella Group Coaching Program, a transformational experience for women musicians to create new income without compromising their artistic dreams or family life.
The program is scheduled to begin on June 15th, 2020.
Spots are filling up quickly so I encourage you not to wait and apply soon (see link in comments). If you’ve already applied and have been invited to join, congratulations!
By the way, if you haven’t yet had a chance to catch up on last week’s “Musician’s Profit Umbrella” 5-day free training, you can still watch the training replays on my FB page here. I recommend you watch them soon before the videos are taken down. Here is what one of the training participants had to say about her experience in my training.
Looking forward to hearing from you. Click here to apply to the Musician’s Profit Umbrella Group Coaching Program!
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