It's all about the toys!

Today, for the first time in ages, I felt a spark of enthusiasm for my chosen vocation. Yesterday, in the regular runnings around that are typical of my weekend evenings, I ended up with a three-hour window from 8 to 11. Everything was so extremely "organized" that I spent much of my evening wondering what to do with myself! I'm not sure this is a GOOD thing, but it was an interesting exercise. The thought of "sitting around" for three hours bugged me.

What could I do?

I started calling.... who would be available at this hour to visit?

I have a friend in the film industry, R., who could very well be on a film shoot - or not - so I called. I got his voice mail... "Hi, you've reached R. I'm on location all this week so leave me a message, I'll return your call."

I left a message.
The phone rang.
It was R.!
"Come on over for a drink - I'm just working on a client's project so I can't leave the office, but come over - we'll visit."

Not only did we visit, I learned! I learned about how video and audio are stored on a DVD and the process through which one goes to master a DVD from raw footage. Cool, very cool.

My friend R. is all about technology and the toys. Today I was doing something completely unrelated, but my subconscious was very active. I started thinking about the time when I was juiced about my business and all the things I did that made it a lifestyle choice over simply a career or a job.

It was the toys. Now, before you get the notion that I'm in any way materialistic, let me clarify: Technology is what grabbed me. The new, the neat, the advanced. I'd be lying if I said there isn't, to some degree, that feeling that every kid gets at Christmas time in anticipation of something new, fresh out of the box. There is, to a certain extent, a degree of that which feeds the excitement. But the toys alone don't feed the growth. They say knowledge is power, they also say that what you DO with knowledge is power. In order to do, you must have tools with which to do. The tools, in this case, are often the toys.

Today I was speaking with a fellow who has hired me numberous times to do sound production for his "little big band". He has a show upcoming in May and was asking me if I was in to no only the live production, but the recording end of things. This conversation got me thinking about all the stuff I could put together to have a really cool - not to mention practically useful - production rig. Dollars didn't matter - my imagination was going wild. What kinds of cool toys could I have on board to make mine the mobile system to be sought after?

In my mind - in toys alone - I probably spent well over $$100,000.00 without really batting an eye. In my current financial situation this kind of outlay would seem frivolous, if not foolish. In my imagination, however, anything goes.

So why not let my imagination feed my dreams, which in turn will create my goals?

Good thinkin', Dave! (you really should be writing this stuff down!)

It's quite obviously time to shift my focus. For too long I've been thinking about the dreaded financial situation... how bad it is, and how to get out.

How about getting back to the dreaming, the wish lists, the goals? Let the crap that is just that work itself out.

Focus on the fun!