Hi My Friend. Thank you so much for being a loyal reader of this site.  I'll be taking a much needed break for two weeks.  Meanwhile, enjoy these three popular posts from the past. 

The Power of the Pause

What Lies Within

And If Things Go Wrong


Michael Biggs

Opportunities

(This is a post dealing with skill development, whether you are a musician, sports participant, business owner or budding artist.  The logo implies music, yet these ideas are transferable to all endeavors.  Thanks for reading.)

Here is a news flash for you. 

Opportunities don’t happen.  

You create them.

Before I started blogging in 2009, my blogs did not exist.  No one came to me and said, “I want you to take over these six blogs and pretty soon you’ll have a readership in 120 countries and nearly 200,000 clicks."

The opportunity existed within and was waiting for me to dig it out.

Perhaps you are a phenomenal violinist/drummer/sculptor/time management guru, yet you’ll never be discovered if you don’t put yourself and your talent out there.  You have to get noticed in order to create opportunities.

Got a great idea for a new widget?  Same principle applies.

Go - Be - Do!

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Soul

Don't Fail by Default

(This is a post dealing with skill development, whether you are a musician, sports participant, business owner or budding artist.  The logo implies music, yet these ideas are transferable to all endeavors.  Thanks for reading.)

Just for the record, I’m going to start out on the negative, but it will get better – promise.

Musicians sing flat 

Clarinets and violins squeak and squawk.

Football pros fumble.

Businesses fail.

Marriages get messy.

Drummers drop drum sticks.

Bankers sometimes get out of balance.

Stock market gambles rise and fall.

Okay. We know all that.  What’s the point?

“It is impossible to live without failing 

at something, unless you live so cautiously 

that you might as well not have lived 

at all - in which case, you fail by default.” 

The alternative to failing, I suppose, is to do nothing.  Be cautious.  Be withdrawn.  Retreat to your bedroom and never come out, never try anything, never draw or write or sing; never sound another note on your instrument of choice, never build another building or enterprise.  Stop your life, for you may fail.

And if you do, you shall surely fail for lack of never having attempted anything. 

What a crappy way to live.  That is not for me, and I dare assume it is not for you either.  For it is in the trying, the attempting the yet to be seen that gives us the thrill of victory.  

When we finally master that difficult passage on the flute, or build that great company, then we fully appreciate the defeats along the way. 

Life is full of fears.  That is a given. 

It is in the conquering of our fears that we discover our creative spark and our zest for living.

Don’t fail for lack of trying.

Fail and try again.  Success could be only 2 more attempts away.

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Soul

What Lies Within

(This is a post dealing with skill development, whether you are a musician, sports participant, business owner or budding artist.  The logo implies music, yet these ideas are transferable to all endeavors.  Thanks for reading.)

A story:

One of the greatest violinists of all time was Nicolo Paganini.  Born in 1782, he had a long and illustrious career before his death in 1840.

One day as Paganini was about to perform before a packed opera house, he suddenly realized that he had walked out on the stage with a strange violin in his hands - not his own treasured instrument made by the master violin maker Guarneri.

Panic-stricken, but realizing that he had no other choice, he began to play with all the skill he possessed. Everyone agreed afterward that he gave the performance of his life. When he was finished, the audience gave him a standing ovation.

In his dressing room after the concert, when he was praised for his superlative performance, Paganini replied, "Today, I learned the most important lesson of my entire career. Before today I thought the music was in the violin. Today I learned that the music is in me."

Maybe our talent, or genius, or immense skill really does reside inside of us and not in the tools, trinkets, and magic elixirs we once believed in.

I am a writer.  I would love to live in an ocean side home with a high perch for a writing room.  The truth is that I can write anywhere.  I’ve written in a dozen Starbucks, a smelly tire store, university libraries, a noisy mall, my car, and a hundred other places.

The skill is within you.  Let it out wherever you go.  

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Soul

The Power of the Pause

(This is a post dealing with skill development, whether you are a musician, sports participant, business owner or budding artist.  The logo implies music, yet these ideas are transferable to all endeavors.  Thanks for reading.)

What do you know and understand about the power of the pause?

The heart pauses between every beat.

God rested on the 7^th day.

Every person needs some amount of sleep every night in order to perform at our best.

My brain needs a break after a writing session of a few hours.  I need to recharge.

My bottom needs a pause from sitting too long on the same hard surface. 

We occasionally need the power of the pause.

Music has rests to give spice and interest to the score.

My feet need the pause after a long day of walking around a new city sight-seeing.

You need to take advantage of the pause called a ‘break’ in your work day.  You could rejuvenate your whole body if done appropriately and consistently.

Kids need their recess time at school

Our ears need a break after listening to very loud music for extreme periods of time.

Are you convinced yet?

We need the Power of the Pause.

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Soul