Announce and Fail

In the spirit of carrying through with crazy ideas, here’s an instance where I’ve announced and failed. Multiple times. On the same project.

There is an event every February called the RPM Challenge. It’s can be thought of as National Novel Writing Month for music. The rules are to create and record either 10 songs, or 35 minutes, of original music in February. It’s also a point of pride for my Granite State-raised heart that the RPM Challenge was started in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 2006, and has since become a worldwide phenomenon.

I’ve attempted this challenge three or four times over the years and was unable to complete it. This includes back when I (a) had tons of music gear, and (b) no kids! I even announced my participation, and I still couldn’t finish, neither the writing nor the recording. I went into it each year like a lion and meekly exited a lamb.

Problems I’ve identified include:

Perfectionism; silly for such a short time frame;
Trying to write and play songs that were above my reach, as I played every instrument.
A lack of structure in how I was going to do this.
Unwillingness to compromise or adapt and improvise in order to complete.
A lack of commitment and poor time management.

This latter is a big change from me 10 years ago and me now. It just seems like I’ve acquired more drive and not less as I’ve gotten older. Maybe because I better recognize now that there is not always time later in some undefined future to do all the things I’d like to do today. I don’t know. All I know is that I’d likely fare better now.

I mean, I used to fart around and not work on this in my free time even when I didn’t have kids. Hell, before I was married I still never finished this challenge. I was all talk and no action.

What else changed? At the risk of sounding cheesy, a lot changed in my life in the 2015-2016 timeframe, ultimately for the better though it sure didn’t seem it at the time. I had quit my job and gone back to school the year earlier, graduated, got a new job after several months of unemployment, moved away from my family, had family tragedies . . . and that was just in the fourth quarter of 2015.

However, and don’t laugh, in my desperation I sought for and came across a variety of interesting people online whose writing and encouragement spurred me to not only try and leave my impression on the world, but to make the best of whatever situation I was in and use adversity to come out stronger. I also deepened my faith in Jesus Christ by reading more and trying to live it better.

Nobody is perfect, least of all me, but it helped. This shift in mindset has led to what I like to think better things in my life and how I handle it, and that’s bled into to other realms as well.

Here’s an interesting thing to think about as well: commitment and ability to follow through in small things spills over into big things.

So maybe finishing seemingly frivolous projects like RPM Challenge or NaNoWriMo or whatever it is one enjoys doing–quilting, woodworking, blacksmithing–can have positive implications on your job, your family life, and your interpersonal relationships.

And for the record, since 2015 I did finish National Novel Writing Month twice.

Dreamers & Misfits is the fruit of finishing what I started. Buy it here.