How Does Lance Armstrong Apply to Music?
My current reading list includes “How Lance Does It” by Brad Kearns
I love reading stories about successful people and who is a better example of a success story than Lance Armstrong?
I think for my own edification and yours, if you are reading this, I will begin a series of posts on my progress through the book and give my thoughts on how the “Lance method” might apply to us as songwriters, guitar players, or whatever kind of instrument you play.
So, there’s no better way to begin than by simply beginning. So, today,I will begin with the beginning! Here are some highlights and my thoughts on what I have read so far:
Introduction
- The basis of Lance’s secret is his pure joy of living life and riding his bicycle.
- Lance’s approach to his sport and life is simple and clean.
Lance tends to live in the moment and does not get bogged down in complex psychological “issues”. Rather, his attitude is best summed up by his statement, “When it’s raining, I just put on my rain jacket and go.” How can we apply this to our own “bad weather” of our own lives? We might not be training for the Tour de France, but we all have stress that comes into our lives, unexpected crises, etc. Do you discipline yourself to write that next verse and just pick up your pencil and go, or do you get sidetracked and distracted with other issues and make excuses to waste time thinking about or worrying about things?
The Lance Success Factors
1. A Positive Attitude: He chooses to interpret past and present experiences in a positive manner. Note the emphasis on choice and free will. This resonates with the “psychology of mind” school of thought (also known as “health realization”) that says that the thoughts we think dictate the feelings we will experience and the best part is that we have the power to choose our thoughts. You don’t like how you are feeling? Think about something different!
2. Clarity of Purpose: Lance Armstrong knows what he wants and he makes the sacrifices needed to reach his goals.
3. Specialized Intelligence: You don’t need to know everything in the world, but you should hone your skills and deepen your knowledge about your chosen area.
4. Pure Confidence: There is an old fashioned way of achieving confidence and building a positive self image: Doing it! Work hard and achieve your goals and you will feel good about yourself and you won’t need others to tell you.
Well, that’s my all for this installment. You might want to get your own copy of the book and read along.
Aloha.
| Chris Hartzog is a folk singer/songwriter. He produces his music and records everything in his own studio making his own MP3′s and CD’s. Chris plays guitar, electric bass, ukulele, Irish penny whistel and harmonica. His philosophy is all about Hawaiian “aloha” and “mana”. |
The Lance Armstrong and Music by Chris Hartzog, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States License.
