Anything Goes : Enjoying The Journey by Bless 1

Most new people that I meet know me as a producer or a composer, but I have had dozens of jobs in my lifetime. The job I worked at the longest was as an electrician. I mainly worked on jobsites at preexisting buildings, but I’ve worked on a few projects from the ground up such as banks, hospitals, and the City Center in Las Vegas. When I was an apprentice the first jobsite I was assigned to that wasn’t in a preexisting building was a new bank on the south side of Chicago and it was a huge learning experience for me. While I was installing electrical pipes on the ground before the cement foundation would be poured over them, I found it hard to imagine a fully operational bank in place of the dirt lot where I was standing. As days and weeks began to pass, the gradual progress allowed me to visualize small parts of the finished bank. But not until it was near completion did I have a clear vision in my mind of the bank in it’s entirety. I’ve learned so many lessons that are parallel to life situations while I was an electrician. One of those was to appreciate incremental progress while having a clear vision of a goal. Project managers and various executives would periodically stop by the bank jobsite to monitor the progress. In it’s infancy with pipes stretched across the lot and wooden templates laid out for cement to be poured into, they would smile and nod or ask why something wasn’t done yet. I found it odd that they saw anything whether it was progress or not. I realize now that I lacked the vision they had and the knowledge of what it took to complete the project. Over the years I have worked to improve my visualization skills. It has helped me to focus on an objective and monitor my progress like a project manager for my life goals. I now see small steps that used to seem insignificant as essential steps to get me closer to my goal. In contrast, I’m also able to see where I have made no progress and analyze why and what changes need to be made. In the past it was easy for me to set a goal and give up on it if I didn’t see the full completion of it after a certain time. I wasn’t acknowledging my progress so I only saw failure. I now “smile and nod” at every new step I make. I know that if I continue to walk forward then my goal will inevitably be realized. Understanding this, I’m able to see the purpose in each step and therefore, enjoy the journey to my destiny. -Aaron S. Brown