So the most frequently asked question by a lot of my people and friends is: How do you manage to balance your music, work and personal life?
And my answer is always very straight forward: It's damn hard!
There's times when I really feel like dropping one between music and work...God knows I can't afford to drop my personal life. But then the light really flashes in my good eye...I LOVE WHAT I DO!
Outside of music I'm a Production Engineer at a radio station. Now I love radio, always have and will for a while. And on the other hand, music is just really part of who I am. Sort of reminds me of that famous motto at Primi Piatti, "Work is Love made visible". Then of course there's the other famous saying "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work another day in your life".
No doubt I dont wanna be working forever, but it really goes a long way that I love what i do! And at times, I'd get so frustrated at work that I wanna call it quits. But at that point, that Love for what I do deposits more patience and energy in me, reminding me why I do what I do.
The other big aspect of it is that I'm an artist and there's bound to be some time clashes. Happened very recently actually, where I had an interview scheduled during work hours...and out here, people ain't gonna barge for nothing. And so I weigh the opportunity cost! Publicity and good profiling versus Salary..? Seems all so overwhelming. At the end of the day, something had to give. This is where good relationsips come in very handy. Good relations with my peeps at work and with the journos and good people making my music career work. A compromise and sacrifice is then made. Schedules have to be adjusted and recordings done at awkward times. But it's the good relations that make it all work out.
A misconception that the fans and public at large seem to have is that as an artist, YOU ARE BALLING! True, some artists are balling but are they balling out from the music...? Hardly the case. There's another big source of income for them, which of course the public would seldomly know of. But truth be told, it takes years of hard work for one to reach that state of abundance and that's in any sphere of life. Music is no different!
Then of course there's the personal life, family, friends and loved ones who DEMAND your time! Not that they will order you to spend time with them, but at the back your your mind you know that they require some quality time. Adds to the (im)balanced equation. So you lose some friends along the way, because you just don't have the time as they put it. My belief on this has always been that if your friends really love you and have your best interest at heart, they will understand your time constraints. With Family it does become a lil tricky. Nonetheless, time has to be made!
So is the balance attainable? ABSOLUTELY!
Comes at an expense tho: Sacrifice and Compromise.
You can't have it all, but you can try. And in your pursuit of abundance, remember that it all happens when there's balance!
Dream Again!
