A Leap of Faith

I delivered a book today; my book about living life to the fullest; the one about following your dreams; the book that talks about lessons and gifts; starting and finishing.

I wanted to take this book to Jason Priest, owner and founder of Little Rock Jams, so that I could get a tour of his new studio that opened in August of last year.

I took guitar lessons from Jason for about a year and stopped before he made the move about a half-mile away to new digs. I was a true beginner, and never did progress very far. I determined that my money would be better spent elsewhere, but I could still pick around on my guitar at home.

Jason was a faithful reader of this blog, which was my book in progress, and now as you know has turned into more of a regular blog.

Jason started his first guitar studio as a solo teacher. He began this gig back in July 2006 when he had an opportunity to “early retire” from a telephone company job during one of the mergers or something similar to that. In other words, a window of opportunity happened and he moved with it.

So to know him when — back when he was just about to add a teacher besides himself and then he was looking for a bigger space to add more staff — to know him then and to see where his studio has progressed today was a treat.

He took a step of faith to do what he’s done; what he’s doing. Little Rock Jams is a studio in Breckenridge Village with instruction rooms and an awesome studio for concerts. He’s so busy that Jason’s taking on running the show and letting the other teachers handle most of the teaching.

Going from a one-man-show studio to having numerous teachers, including piano and voice, to what Jason has developed now didn’t happen without a lot of prayer, persistence, faith, determination and I’d guess blood, sweat and tears.

Life is about stepping out of our comfort zones in order to fulfill our dreams.

We rarely get anywhere in life without taking a leap of faith. If you’re one of the few who was handed everything on a seemingly silver platter, if life just comes easy and there’s never a struggle to achieve and get what you want, rejoice in that. Because for the rest of us what we have is what we earned.

We work hard, we pray a lot, we take two steps forward and one back, sometimes we even give up. But for the most part, when we truly want something, we go the distance, we don’t quit or give up, we just keep moving on.

And so the delivery of my book to Jason about living life to the fullest; the one about following your dreams; the book that talks about lessons and gifts; starting and finishing was one that could have been written about him.

He’s already asked to star in the movie, so we know he dreams big.

Jason Priest, congratulations, my friend. Thanks for all of your support as I wrote my book and today as you admired it in your studio. Thanks for living your life as a good example. I know your children are learning the right way to do things.

Visit LittleRockJams.com to sign up for your lessons today!

Getting Started and Finishing

“It is a matter first of beginning — and then following through.”
—Richard L. Evans

For some getting started is the hardest thing. And for others the most difficult thing is the follow through; finishing what was started. We all have our struggles. And we all have points in our journeys where we really have a hard time just doing what we set out to do, even if it’s just beginning.

It’s easy to find excuses to wait before we start and then we find we never get started because there’s an abundance of reasons to wait.

For instance, it would be difficult to begin a diet around the holiday season starting in November with Thanksgiving and going to New Year’s Day. That’s understandable. However, if we began a diet in the summer, by the time we got to the holiday season our new eating habits, our new way of life would have become familiar and easy. So we can be wise about when we begin things.

Getting started for some is the hard part. There will always be reasons not to do something and if we spend our time thinking of those things and making up new ones we won’t even find out if we can finish. Excuses include: fear of failure, laziness, the inability to give up something else to fit in the new thing, lack of initiative, not believing that we can do it, and maybe having others tell us we won’t be able to do what we set out to do.

Our self-esteem depends upon our believing in ourselves. If we never try we never succeed. Our self-image is not dependent upon us winning a huge prize or becoming millionaires. It is based upon who we are and how we see ourselves. Our battles are often not even known or seen by anyone else. These things that we want to do, but can’t seem to start or finish, they are individual to each of us, and we are the only ones who can do them.

Take that first step today by setting all the excuses aside and then see if you can finish.