Go Beyond the Technical Route: Go For the You Know What - Think Deep

Go Beyond the Technical Route: Go For the You Know What

This might very well be the most confusing article title I ever wrote on this site so let me please explain what this article is all about.

I don’t really have a technical term for what I’m talking about but you’ll understand what I mean through the analogy I’m going to write.

Whenever we hear somebody sing a popular song whether in a karaoke bar or talent show and it’s one of “those” songs, and by that I mean a song that isn’t very easy to sing for the average person, we watch and wait.

We watch and wait.

Is he/she going to choose the technical route or go for the you know what?

They sing the song pretty well in the beginning and the crescendo starts building to the chorus and we wait.

We wait to see the choice they make

Will they go all out when the high notes of the chorus come out or will they play it safe?

Will they risk the high voice or just plateau off safely?

And so we wait.

If they choose to the technically safe route in the sense that they sing the lyrics without pushing their “voice envelope”, let’s face it, we are always somewhat disappointed.

We don’t always show it outside, but deep down inside, a part of us is disappointed.

And when the song is over, we give polite applause.

But sometimes, every once in a while, you’re going to see somebody go for it (maybe they feel like they can because they got a few drinks in them ;))

There are people who go for it.

And these people aren’t professional singers by any means of the imagination.

They don’t half ass it, but go for it.

They go for it ALL.

They just lose all inhibition, forget about the fear of making a fool out of themselves, and imagine as if they are alone in the shower signing their hearts out.

Now as we all know, either one of two things is going to happen in this scenario.

They don’t hit the high notes very pretty but the audience doesn’t really care. They recognize and appreciate the fact that they went balls out and applaud like crazy and cheer the singer on for choosing to go for the you know what.

And you know what? While it didn’t sound very professional, the singer discovers it wasn’t so bad. The fear of doing it was FAR worse than the actual experience. The actual experience turned out to be FUN!

The singer feels empowered and knows that their “comfort envelope” has just been pushed a bit further, giving them more freedom and confidence to try different things in the future.

Note that this is the case if the singer goes ALL OUT, 100%, THE ENTIRE TIME OF THE HIGH NOTES, not starts off going all out and then retreats back into technical safety because he/she realizes it’s not going to work, but goes ALL OUT 100%, even though he/she realizes 1-2 seconds into the highest notes of the song that there is no way in hell they’re going to make it and that there’s no way it’s going to sound pretty..

Now the other scenario is of course, the singer does hit all the high notes very well, and the singer is just as surprised as anyone else in the crowd.

This is a GREAT feeling not just for the singer, but for the crowd too. This is where the crowd gets goosebumps and almost lives vicariously through the singer and just blows the roof off with their cheering and applause because they recognized that the singer went for you know what – that place that far too many people fear to venture into and they NAILED IT.

That place mixed with fear of humiliation, embarrassment, loss of self confidence, worry, doubt, that dark place of unknown potential.

But the singer goes there anyway and emerges stronger regardless of which scenario plays out.

This is a good analogy for life. We can live life through the technical route by doing everything without ever pushing our imagined limits but I guarantee you that if a person does that, they will feel disappointed with themselves deep down inside.

Imagine a Ferrari only traveling at 10mph the entire time.

Never really stretching its legs.

A bit of a waste of its potential don’t you think?

Of course there are times to go 10 mph but there are times where you got to push it. Not push it forever. But push it when that time comes. When the “high notes” of life come.

Go for the you know what. Even if it isn’t pretty aftewards, applaud yourself for having the courage to do it. Cheer yourself for venturing to go for the you know what. You WILL feel a lot better, just knowing that you have what it takes to push it and that there’s more latitude to your comfort envelope that you didn’t know existed. You start growing confident, take more risks, experience more freedom and one day, not too far off, you won’t feel any more hesitation at all when the “high notes” of life come for you to sing and that time, you’ll hit em.

You’ll hit em hard.

And that will prove to be the day where you find yourself completely blowing the “ceiling” off of your own mind.

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