You’re practicing for something. You may not know it yet, but you are. I was.

I trust you’ll excuse me if I don’t provide a link to the quote that at 2:07am I can just not be bothered to look up. I don’t need to, really; you already know it. It’s something to the effect that “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. Or something.

I realized this week that every huge thing that has happened in my life has been something I didn’t even realize I was preparing for.

I spent 2 years as a youth pastor at my dad’s church. Even though I dearly loved the kids I worked with, I had no intention of becoming a career youth pastor: I wanted to move to England. I hadn’t the foggiest how that was going to happen, it was just this vague desire.

I didn’t realize I was preparing for it, but when the job offer finally came, it all made sense: I moved to Birmingham, England on a job offer to mentor high school kids.

When Imogen Heap asked me (by way of a MySpace contest. I’m not proud, but I’m honest: I won. a.. coughMySpacecough… contest.) to open for her in Birmingham, it wasn’t the first show I’d ever played…

Rewind about 6 months, and most days you’d find me on this schedule: 9am – 3pm was work, then I’d take a nap at the office until everyone left (around 5pm) at which point I’d turn it into a recording studio. I’d record until about 5am, & then I’d tear everything back down and try to get another couple of hours of sleep until everyone else showed up. Fridays, I’d lock myself in and wouldn’t leave until Sunday night when I would go home to get a shower.

Once the recording was done, it was time to hit the road. I left work most Thursdays on the way to a show somewhere in the UK, usually playing 3 shows a weekend, and getting back just in time to be at work at 9am Monday.

The point of this is – when Imogen e-mailed me (ON THE DAY OF THE SHOW, no less), I didn’t panic, wondering how I was ever going to put together a setlist to open for her. I’d played a few shows a week leading up to it. I nailed the show, sold every CD I brought with me, and a few days later, she asked me to open for her on her U.S. tour.

So here we are, 3 years later. I’ve been living in Nashville, touring on my own when I can get it booked, and trying to break even. I’ll be honest, it’s been mostly frustrating for the last 2 years.

But then here comes this month… After taking down my entire online presence for the summer, I relaunched with new music, a new way to buy music, and a new website. I had spent the entire summer writing the album, recording the demos, and figuring out how the heck to design an online store for a method of album release that didn’t exist before. (at least as far as I knew. Since, I’ve been sent links to similar ideas.) So when a Grammy-Award-Winning Producer asked me, seemingly out of the blue, if he could work with me, I didn’t think “AAAHHHHH I SHOULD HAVE BEEN WRITING SONGS”.

We went into the studio and in two days, I had two songs done.

Since I launched, I’ve had a guy float a loan (at 0% interest) on a new car to tour in, I’ve gotten an offer to open for another national act this fall (details when it’s official!), and I’m a couple thousand dollars into a plan that people were really skeptical about. All of a sudden, things are starting to move.

What no one sees is that for the last 2 years, I’ve been bordering on depression because things haven’t been taking off.

What I’m saying is this: In those down times, when nothing was happening, when everyone was forgetting that I existed, I didn’t give in to the overwhelming urge to give up. Yeah, there were afternoons where I took a golf club and cleared a mattress-sized divot in my backyard. I’ve cried, I’ve thrown things, I’ve thrown my share of completely embarrassing tantrums. But I eventually came back and kept working. I didn’t give up. What else was I going to do?!

I had no idea I was going to be offered a job mentoring high school kids. When Imogen e-mailed me on the day of the show, it was a total surprise. (and again a week later with the U.S. tour offer). And how could I have predicted that Mitch Dane was going to want to work with me?

The fact is, I couldn’t. The best and worst moments of your life are usually total surprises. But what I could control was what I did in between those big moments, so that when they happened, I was ready.

I’m not saying I haven’t been blessed. I’m aware that there are people far more qualified than me who have just never gotten the opportunities I’ve had. I’m not dumb enough to claim full credit for my success.

But I will say that if I’d been practicing something else, I believe opportunities would have come up for whatever it was I was doing. I just recognized these because that’s where my focus was. No doubt, I entered that Myspace contest in one of the hours I spent on the computer promoting my shows. If my passion had been elsewhere, say – car racing – I would have spent enough of my spare time doing car-racing-stuff that eventually I would have put myself in a position for a car racing opportunity to come up.
The real point is that I kept doing something when nothing was happening.

Inactivity or passive acceptance of your circumstances is really the only way to lose.

So whatever it is that you can’t see yourself not doing? Keep doing it. Do it because you love doing it, even if it stresses you out. Even if you aren’t making enough money at it to make it your full-time job. If you keep at it long enough, it will become a job. But for now, enjoy the little nuances of learning your trade.

The only trick is to never give up.

Related posts

1. Diary of a Wage Slave Rebel: On Tour
2. Diary of a Wage Slave Rebel: A Brief Introduction to my Madness
3. Diary of a Wage Slave Rebel: How to Disregard the Safe and Certain and Almost Go To Jail… (Twice) – Part 2
4. Diary of a Wage Slave Rebel: The Truth About Working For Yourself
5. Diary of a Wage Slave Rebel: Stretching Your Personal Skills for Professional Gain