Tedious Tasks

There are things in life that need to be done, but simply aren’t pleasant. So we tend to procrastinate and put them off for as long as possible until we absolutely. have. to. do. them. Anyone else?  My iTunes music account falls squarely into that category.

See, as a musician and music therapist, I naturally have accumulated lots of music files over the years. Over 20,000, actually. Some of the files I purchased through iTunes, some from Amazon, some from Google play, some from who-knows-where-anymore. The bottom line was that after all this time, iTunes was a gigantic mess of playlists and random files and… well, chaos.

Organization needed to happen.  Something had to change.  It was simply time to get it done.  I’d delayed and procrastinated long enough.

But, honestly, who wants to wade through 20,000 files????

So I prioritized and started with the playlists I needed most– the ones I use for music therapy and GIM. It wasn’t an easy task, and it took the better part of a week to get files downloaded and uploaded and burned to CD and transferred to the correct folders and organized in ways that fit what I need to do with them. There may even have been some cursing and fist shaking at the almighty iTunes…. but finally, it was done!

Why am I telling you this?

Because there’s a life lesson here. As I was sitting back in my office chair, waiting for yet another album to download/upload/burn to CD, it occurred to me that there were many times in this process when I could have given up and resigned myself to “just dealing with the mess”.

I mean, how often do we do that in other areas of life? Settle for the halfway done job, make do with “it’s always been like this,” give up in the face of tough challenges because we’re tired and it may seem not worth it to fight anymore?

At least in my case with iTunes, it wasn’t just about me. It was also about my clients. And how well I can help them is tied to how I manage my resources. If I’m limited in which music files and playlists I can use with my clients because they’re unorganized and unavailable– then I’m not serving my clients to the best of my ability. That’s something I take very seriously, so giving up wasn’t something I was willing to do.

It’s the same in all those areas in life where we’re tempted to throw in the towel. It helps to remember that it’s not always just about us. Thinking of the bigger picture can be hugely motivating. Changing perspective on a situation or hardship can be immensely helpful.

Remember that the next time you’re faced with a challenge that takes longer to accomplish than you’d like, or isn’t turning out the way you’d want– keep the bigger picture in mind and persevere a little longer.

If you find that you’re really stuck and are having trouble moving forward, you can contact me for a free consultation to see if music therapy might help you. My iTunes files are ready! 🙂