This is the advice I wrote to myself in 2018. A moment of clarity after a decade of confusion. A decade during which I thought what I was giving my love, time, and energy to was tied to who I was. If you asked me what I did for a living, I would reply with “Singer/Songwriter”. So, why did I feel a little pang of annoyance when people around me would reduce me down to this title?
I asked for that spotlight. There are millions of minstrels content with creating for the sake of creating. Yet, I chose to do it in public view and to stake over 10 years of life into that choice. I took the bait. I was in it to win it and I thought I was just as talented and hardworking as those dudes at the top laying the groundwork for young, aspiring just out of college, don’t want to get a real job type of people like me.
10 years sets up the next 10 and so on until dust…
And that’s where it all started to go downhill. It became my job. The reality was, some of us are just as talented and hardworking, but those are not the only ingredients required for fame and fortune. Chalk it up to my 20’s. My entitled and braggadocios youth and inexperience. I followed the gold rush but everything that glitters…takes your money and leaves you feeling like a failure.
Taking flight off the south rim of the Chisos Mtns in Big Bend National Park, TX.
Green Heart. Photo: NickytheFlip
So fast forward to this moment of clarity, because years 33 and 34 were a mix of healing and OG haze.
I came back home to Fort Worth. I’d just bought an old house full of potential and was halfway through my 2nd full year of being Mista V, a kindergarten teacher at the public school in my old neighborhood. Being responsible for teaching the fundamental functions to 5 year olds will shake the entitlement off you and max out your patience points. Everyone should teach kindergarten. It made me realize that I didn’t always know how to do the simplest tasks. No reason to have higher expectations for myself 30 years later.
Squirrel! Photo: Mista V
Tigger leads a pack of crayons to lunch in the cafeteria.
From that moment on I accepted responsibility for my shortcomings in the last 10 years and set forth a plan to make each of my coming decades better than the last. 10 years is an entire chapter if you keep growing. 10 years allows for inevitable setbacks and the time needed to process and learn from them. 10 years sets up the next 10 and so on until dust.
Every plan needs action and I chose 4 of them to make consistent and progressive steps towards execution. 4 actions that have contributed to our progress as a human race since the beginning of society.
Write, teach, learn, and invest.
10 years at a time, 4 pillars. Ok. 10-4.
Here we are, 3 whirlwind years later, and I’m still fully invested. I taught kindergarten for a fun and frustrating 5 years and learned more from my “Wolfpack” and some fellow teachers than I ever did from any waste of time, district required training. My schedule flipped from 150 shows/year to maybe 15 shows in that time but each of them has been the kind to remind me of why I tried for all those years.
Some of my very good friends were generous enough to dig me out of the trenches and over the last year, helped me remember how lucky I was to be an artist from Texas.
Texas Voices. Photo: Robert Millage Photography
I’ve missed the community. Friends turned to family in every little town I visited with my band of bros. I miss the stories and late night picking circles. I want to reconnect and we’ve always connected through writing…the only action I haven’t fully committed to at the top of my list…
“Welcome to my blog! I’ll be sharing stories about how I’ve welcomed the 4 pillars of writing, teaching, learning and investing into my life. Everything from the Macro to the micro. Through this, I hope to connect with a community of wildly creative, diverse and positive people. I have already met so many of them.”
Starting this month, I will strive to publish weekly and hope to collaborate with you in the comments section. We can talk music, songwriting, horticulture, active lifestyle, leadership, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, food, nature, crypto, NFT’s, conservation, education, meditiation or motivation! I currently have a pillar activated in any of those subjects and beyond.
Thanks For Reading and Keep Learning!
NickytheFlip