The first lesson I want to offer you here at J.Fox Soul’s online classroom is a simple one. It’s about making the distinction between the “small picture” and the “big picture”. Both pictures are really quite important in building a career in the arts, however it is very easy to get trapped in focussing on one and not balancing the two to support each other.
So what exactly do I mean by the BIG PICTURE?
The big picture is your career from a birds-eye perspective, in the future. It’s the holy grail of your life. Take a moment to close your eyes and visualise what you look like as the realisation of all your dreams. Perhaps you’re in a leer jet with a cocktail. Perhaps you’re backstage hanging out with Bono and U2. Maybe you’re on-stage singing for 3000 or even 30,000 adoring fans. Or maybe you’re just home alone in your decked-out private studio writing songs and not worrying about bills or where your next meal is coming from.
Everyone’s picture will be different and that’s simply because everyone has a unique dream of success. Maybe you’ve never thought about this much before, but let me assure you that if you’re reading this blog you are interested in succeeding as a musician, so now is the time to create your vision of success. In designing your big picture think about the details of it. Who is in the picture with you? Who is absent? What is everyone wearing? What are you doing? What are you thinking about? Where are you and what does the room look like? Don’t get hung up on how realistic it is, or how you got there, that’s SMALL PICTURE thinking. Just zap yourself forward in time to your perfect and fully realised future of success and paint a picture.
If you have artistic skills it’s not even a bad idea to draw or paint this future. Or, grab some music magazines and start making a collage artwork. Or just write down the scene. Once you can see your big picture in your mind it’s important to externalise the image so that as you work towards this dream you don’t lose sight of what you’re working for. It is inevitable that there are going to be little failures and knock-backs that bring you down to the cold hard earth, and that is when you are likely to forget your big picture, so put it down on paper now, share it with someone you love, and then put it away somewhere safe where you can get it out and spend some time thinking about it again when you need to.
In my commitment to you as a mentor it is important that I share my own journey as openly as possible so that you get some sense of how it works in practise. Everything I teach is from experience, some of it based on my past, some of it based on current experimentation. This big picture method is a new weapon in my arsenal of mass creation, so I will share my big picture with you (in words) so we can work towards our respective big pictures together.
There’s a party on at my place, we’re having a bonfire. My father-in-law has lit it up and is keeping an eye on the giant beast roasting over hot coals. My siblings-in-law are chatting away with my sister and my parents are there too, laughing and talking with my wife and mother-in-law. The whole family is gathered for the warmth of a winter bonfire and a fresh roast dinner. Members of my extended family are there including cousin Seamus and his wife and kids. Some of my long-time mentoring clients are there too, the ones I consider good friends after all these years. My three children are running around with their cousins laughing and enjoying the crisp winter air and warmth of the growing flames. I arrive home in my almost brand-new Toyota Hiace van after finally finishing up for the day in the office. I had been detained on the phone speaking with my accountant who called to inform me that I owed a bit of extra tax to the government because my income had just shot through the roof with the release of my latest album. It doesn’t bother me, I like being a tax paying citizen, so I arrange a transfer of the funds needed.
I arrive at the bonfire to be greeted by everyone and I go straight to my kids and give them all big cuddles and kisses. Then I start spreading the news around. My latest album has just sold it’s 100,000th copy and has officially gone Gold! Everyone is overjoyed to hear this. Seamus gives me a congratulatory hug and comments that this will be a great bit of news to share on our seminar tour next month. Seamus is in the area because we are going over the final details of our upcoming tour of high schools, universities and music colleges where we will be discussing the success of our new co-written book on careers in creativity and our very successful business together in music career coaching and mentoring.
The party is a bit of a farewell as the next morning my wife, kids and I are getting on a plane to Paris where I will start my brief summer tour of mainland Europe for the year. I’m playing 8 shows in 2 weeks to a total audience of 80,000 people, then we’re planning to spend 2 weeks catching up with friends and family while we stay in our holiday home in the South of France. I’m feeling energised by the news of my album’s success and by the fresh smell of burning wood, and as I look at all my loved ones around me I feel an overwhelming sense of peace as I know that money is no longer a struggle for me and that everyone I love is looked after. I can’t wait to enjoy the warmth of a European Summer and I’m even more excited about coming home again before hitting the road with Seamus to spread inspiration to more aspiring musicians.
As we start to enjoy our delicious winter meal I suddenly have an idea for a new charity organisation I want to invest in, so I decide to call my Director of Charity in the morning to discuss the possibility of helping more people in the world with this latest windfall of mine.
My life and all my relationships are harmonious and full of joy and I know that anything I dream is possible because I have proved it by getting this far.
So that’s my big picture. It may seem a little far-fetched to some of the more pessimistic out there, but if you read it carefully you’ll notice there is nothing beyond my reach in there. The things I have achieved in my dream are only bigger versions of the things that I am already achieving. I probably spent as much time writing about what achieving those goals FEELS like as what they look like, and for all my material desires of fame and fortune, the entire the scene takes place outdoors in nature with friends and family. For me, these relationships are fundamental and maintaining joy and harmony in my personal life is at the core of this big picture. The rest is the icing on a very sweet cake.
Breaking down the Small Pictures.
So now that you have your big picture clearly in your mind, and as clearly as possible recorded on paper, you need to start creating your small pictures. Let’s think about Leonardo Da Vinci’s mural painting of the Last Supper for a moment. This is a big artwork with lots of characters, lots of objects, lots of immense detail, geometry and symbol. It is not simply a picture of a loaf of bread like the name suggests, it is an entire world on a wall. Within this big picture we could make a list of hundreds if not thousands of small components that make up the whole, each contributing inextricably to the beauty of the whole image. Each of these objects, whether parts of characters’ bodies, or pieces of food, grails of wine, or background textures, has had a unique journey of design and creation that led it to be part of the picture.
In your own big picture that you have now designed there are similar components, some visible, some intangible and simply part of the story. These are your small pictures that each need to be carefully crafted before the big picture is possible. For instance if you were in your private recording studio, then we immediately have the small pictures of lots of pieces of audio equipment, a building in which to house them, and a constructed studio environment that holds them all together. Each of these things must be manifested before the big picture is complete and this is the part that takes time and work.
Over the next few lessons I will start to provide you with some tools that will help you identify and clarify every small picture item that needs to be manifested as well as create a structure of steps towards getting them! Before you proceed, make sure that you have completed your big picture ON PAPER and put it away somewhere safe. I guarantee that as you start to work towards it you will quickly lose perspective so having that record is essential to staying on track.
Stay tuned for the next lesson where we break the first of our SMALL PICTURE goals down into a manageable timeline.
Love and much respect
James Higgins
Director and founder of J.Fox Soul
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