Sometimes You Gotta Sing Through the Muck!

Today I had the honor and pleasure of riding to and from a workout with my baby brother.  (He’d kill me if I called him that so don’t tell him.  He never reads my blog anyway, so I’m safe).

While driving, we enjoy listening to random music 🙂  Okay….normally upbeat funky music.

Or…as funky as it gets coming from two home-schooled, Christian kids… 🙂

Backing up a little…

We were in church a few months ago, and the band there played a song called “Believer” by Imagine Dragons.  Sam loved it so much that he learned how to play it on the piano in about two weeks.

Yup.

See, my brother is one of those people.  You know what I’m talking about.  One of those people who’s good at EVERYTHING.  No matter what it is.

SO…back on target!

He learned the song.  He wanted ME to learn how to SING it.  At first, I was like “yeah no.”  But today, I decided I didn’t care and we tried it.

The result?

See for yourself….

Not too bad huh?

I mean….we started on a timer and guessed when it started filming so we cut off the first few words…..but hey!  You get what you get.  This was the best one so far.  Seriously.

What you didn’t see, is that it took us about an hour (or maybe even longer) to film that one as good as it was (and it could still be improved upon).  So many times we had to restart because one or both of us messed up in the playing/singing of the song.  However, most of the time was spent figuring out why I couldn’t sing it in the key he was playing it in.  We ended up having him play the song an octave lower, because that’s the actual key the song is in and easier for me to sing.

Seriously.  Who films a music video perfectly on the first try?  Not that this was a music video… 🙂

But my point is this: we didn’t get it right on the first try.

Lesson #7:  To get to the final result, you have to go through the muck.

When you succeed, people will tell you you’re lucky, or that you’re talented.  But you’ll know better.  You’ll remember the hours you spent working when no one was watching.  It’s the work that gets done in secret that really matters.  No one will see it, no one will really praise you for it, but it’s necessary.  All they will see is the final victory.  they won’t see the struggles or the pain.  But you will.  Annoyingly, while you’re in the muck, people will tell you you’re doing it wrong.  HA!  As if they have a right to tell you how to do something they were too scared to do.  No.  Only listen to those you trust, those who have made their way through the exact same muck as you, and made it through.  The best part?  You will learn to love all of the challenges that made you who you were.

My challenge to you is this:

Ignore the critics.  Push aside their negative talk because they will only drag you down into a pit of despair.  You’re worth way more than that!  So get out there and fight through your muck, and soon you’ll be on the other side.

Now I know my example to go along with this lesson was kinda small, but I hope you get the point.

Thanks for reading my blog 🙂

Until next time,

Hope Frances