keep our heads down,

stay in the box,

speak when spoken to,

color within the lines,

do it like they did it,

pass some exams,

and get a degree that gets us a job that gets us healthcare and, eventually, gets us retirement.

The problem here is that the grading system that has awarded one’s athleticism to all of this we’re supposed to do is crumbling. The MOMA is full of art that is outside of the lines and the box (and it’s being cheered for). College isn’t finding or getting us THE job it said it would. Free healthcare isn’t providing fulfillment in our jobs. And we’ve thought retirement equaled happiness, but Luby’s five days a week has proven this not to be true.

Shift gears….

…then there is what you’re supposed to do.

That thing inside of you that you can’t shake.

The things that keep you restless on the pillow, but also passionately pulls you from your slumber.

That work that feels like freedom.

That consistent whisper of ‘yes’.

The reason you’re here.

Your music.

Could there be anything worse than looking back at your 30, 40, 50, 60, or 70 plus years of doing what you’re supposed to do and seeing yourself stand in line for the retirement you never really wanted in the first place?

And we all have hearts, brands, and businesses that are marketing something…could be a place, a person, a belief, a dream, enthusiasm, an experience, a feeling, an emotion, or even hope.

Marketing isn’t about convincing people to buy things they don’t want or didn’t know they needed. Rather, it’s about the heart pointing at something it resonates with and, sometimes, even pointing back to itself.

I hope our hearts, brands, and businesses will point to such wondrous places.

If so, we’ll become great marketers.

This “look at their life” and “look at their stuff” and “look at their dreams” adrenaline appears to be unquenchable. Do we do this to avoid looking at ourselves? Do we do this to avoid clicking the “like” button of us? Do we do this because someone convinced us at some point that we are not @ mentionable?

We need to look at ourselves more.

Looking into a book we sort have to look at ourself.

Having tough and great conversation we have to look at ourself.

And staring at vacant canvases, trying to start/make something from nothing, makes us look at ourself.

I guess what I’m getting at is we do ourselves a lot more good to read ourselves than to constantly read others through tweets and instagrams. Not so you constantly look at yourself from a place of arrogance or pride, but so you look at yourself from a place of wonder and awe as to where you can plug into the world that is evolving, not revolving, around you.

Live your life. Don’t live someone else’s. Find things that read you and report back to the universe with that.

And while you’re at it, look up from your smart phone and experience this place.

That time is here.

Doing what you tell yourself you should do is where the light is. Our dreams and hopes are found in the “shoulds” we own and tell ourselves.

We tell ourselves a lot of “shoulds.”

We follow through with very few of them.

How can my service make someone’s story better?

How can my idea make someone’s story better?

How can I make someone’s story better?

This is the one question that creates the business model, the business plan, and is, itself, the culture of a business.

The next time you hear someone say “look how beautiful” – think of them saying “look how right.” That, after all, is what they’re trying to convey when they’re lost in orchids, sunsets, mountains, or a child’s laughter, right? Such rightness makes us tremble.

So we give…we give ourself to pointing out, outlining, exposing, sharing and creating this kind of beauty. For her role is endless. She’s needed in our businesses, she’s now a must in our products, she is service, she sings in our art, she’s the one special part of our latest favorite song, she’s the purpose of poetry, and she makes our head nod up and down in our fulfillment.

When you get it right you’ve got yourself something beautiful. And when you’ve created beauty you’ve done something right.

Beauty is the universal agreement to such rightness. Put her into all things.

For most people, it appears that simply starting is the hardest part of any journey. I feel that a bit of that burden is lifted when you start from a place of newness – a place that’s fresh.

Yes, all of your steps that you have taken got you to where you are on this Monday. But the gospel of Monday is that your steps taken today will take you wherever you decide and choose them to. We can’t hear that enough can we? We decide and choose our reality.

We probably need to ask ourselves what do we want next Monday and what do we want 10 years of Mondays from now.

We can’t change the past, but 7 days from today they will refer to today as the past. And like or not, we all are holding the pen, in real-time, that’s about to write out this Monday.

The old is gone and the future is waiting for you to write it. You are the author, narrator, and protagonist.

When you think about yesterday – think data – think trends – think fulfillment.

When you think about today – think rain – think energy – think growth.

When you think about tomorrow – think bloom – think hope – think harvest.

That’s tough, though, when we want to, and at some point need to, say yes to email, text, people, friends, relationships, golf, twitter, and for some of you – The Kardashians. The need to be kept up with, right?

This is where noise comes in. Noise is the byproduct of giving into your wants at the inappropriate time. Noise is anything that robs your musical moments. Noise is out for itself, and ridiculously jealous of your music. Noise knows nothing of meaning or fulfillment.

Look at that…no is the first two letters of noise (just saw that….interesting).

Music, on the other hand, comes from doing what you have to do when you have to do it.

To give proper attention to the music we all long to make, we must say no to noise.

No song ever wrote itself.

No goal was ever obtained through occasional proper action.

So in a world that appears to have a million yes boxes to check off, where does one start?

Shrink.

Go small.

Have one box to check. Say no to the other 999,999 boxes.

Smaller worlds lead to bigger lives and even bigger music.