Life is a Song: Overcommitted

I started to write a song yesterday called "Overcommitted". I didn't get very far, because I was pulled into several other directions. As it turned out, the song wasn't the only personal priority that went un-met that day. Ultimately I went to bed early, feeling frustrated that couldn't keep anything on-course.

If yesterday were a song, it would have been unfocused and under-confident, lurching along in stops and starts. An idea started in one lyric line would be abandoned in the next. It would be riddled with non-rhymes. It would be neither singable, nor memorable! No wonder I went to bed early.

I know how to keep my songs from being overcommitted, from trying to do many things at once and trying to be all things to all people. So how can I apply that knowledge to my life?

In a song, it's important to:

1) Commit to one idea at a time. The song about trying to connect with my daughter is not the same song as the one expressing optimism because of the changing political landscape. Each song is about one clear idea, the simpler and more specific the better. Life lesson: Tackle one project at a time. Multi-tasking leads to unfocused, anxious activity.

2) Go deeper. To write a good song, I need to really care about the subject: to dig into it deeply, get to know it, mine the emotional depth of it. If I'm not going deep, the song doesn't go anywhere. In life, this idea is expressed by the Outward Bound slogan, "If you can't get out of it, get into it". The only way out of a situation is "in" and "through". Surface attempts don't work, and neither does avoidance. If I find myself in the midst of any problem (even the problem of overcommitment itself), I need to fully commit to understanding it in order to sort it out. (That's why I'm writing this blog, I guess, and could now finish the song!)

3) Commit to Harmony. One of the most important elements of a successful song, in my view, is harmony. The chords have to complement the melody, and the melody itself has to be pleasing. I find that when I listen to music, I'm attracted to harmony, and that's what I want to offer in my own songs. By the same token, harmony matters in life . If activities are jarring and dissonant, I have to choose which ones truly create harmony.