The Relevance of Effort in Measuring Success

Tonight, I happened to see a TV commercial featuring a clip of this famous quote by Master Yoda from Star Wars and it immediately started my mind churning on if there was a deeper meaning or how someone might be able to take it and relate it to their own life. It also inspired me to start this new section of my blog called Philosopharts.

“Do, or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda

My Philosophart of the evening:

100% effort alone can never guarantee successful completion of anything. Accomplishment will only come if the level of effort put forth is sufficient enough to convert the necessary resources required for successful completion. This is given that these resources are actually available for use. Success is achieved through a formula and is not an emotional desire.

Obvious, I know, but how many of us actually consider the resources available to us and our potential for success before we begin a task and then become frustrated when we fail or do not achieve the result that we envisioned we would?

Whenever I have a thought such as this I try to relate it to an aspects of my life in an effort to try and show it’s validity. “Give examples”, our school teachers always told us. I chose to relate this one to my chosen profession.

HR Management tip: Your employees can only succeed if success is possible. Effort and ability are insignificant and, quite frankly, useless unless you also provide your employees with the necessary resources required. It is also your responsibility as a manager to select the person with the required mix of abilities and desire to succeed when hiring, assigning task, and delegating workloads.

The most successful employment relationships more symbolize that of two symbiotic organisms. Should one of the organisms begin to turn parasitic, the employment relationship then begins to dissolve at a rate reflective of the parasite’s level of exploitation to the host’s hospitality.

That’s life….

Thanks Yoda!!

Greatest Guitar Riffs of All Time

This is pretty simple. Lets see how many of the greatest all time guitar riffs we can name out here. Since I am a bass player, lets include bass riffs too. Can’t let those Glory-hogging guitar players have all the fun!

Name out as many as you want, but if any of them suck you’d better be prepared for my trash talking…muahahaha!

I’ll start.

Sunshine of Your Love – Cream

Destiny and the Control of One’s Own Fate.

Ok people. Here’s a little advice. If you’re taking antibiotic capsules for anything, don’t do what I did this morning. I’m no medical expert but I’m pretty sure my body was in a bit of distress about a couple of hours ago; for the fact that I was unable to breath without heavily concentrating.

What happened you ask? I made the mistake of trying to take a pill with coffee. One of the side effects to this medication is acid reflux, or “heartburn”. I’m pretty sure most of you know what this is. Anyway, this was my 2nd very large cup of coffee this morning so the level of acidity in my stomach was probably high…YA THINK?!?! This was so stupid of me and I should have known better, but I proceeded to take the pill with a mouthful of coffee and then “downed” the rest of the mug. About 10 seconds later all hell broke lose in there somewhere. Before I knew it, the capsule had dissolved and the dusty medication traveled back to the top of my throat where I gasped and inhaled it. This was the part where I realized I was in trouble. It felt as though my trachea had closed over or my lungs had collapsed. Much like I imagine an asthma attack would feel. I was unable to breath without forcefully sucking back and really concentrating on each breath.

As I’m writing this, I’m looking back over the words that I’ve typed and find myself wondering if it sounds too dramatic. Am I reading thinking too deeply about what happened to me this morning? Then I start to reflect and play back the scenario in my head. Did I really think that I could die during the 5 minutes that it took for me to regain control of my breathing? Well yes. I did. At one point I picked up my phone to call 911 because I didn’t know how long the reaction was going to last or if it was going to worsen. It was that entire feeling of all helplessness and not having that natural level of control that made me think that these could actually be my last breaths. 5 Minutes of that feeling of inevitable doom. In retrospect, I feel silly. In the moment in which it was happening, I felt absolutely justified in my reaction.

From past experiences of being suddenly hurt or injured, I know that when my body experiences this kind of distress, the time it takes to recover from the initial shock can seem like a lifetime. Your thoughts are already behind the 8-ball and you’re so surprised by what just happened that the longer it takes you to regain some form of mental composure and begin to think rationally, your chances of making the best choice to minimize the level of damage to be caused will decrease exponentially. This is, of course, depending on the level of the emergency. In short, the more you panic, the worse it’s probably going to be! I phrase it this way because nothing in life or existence is absolutely predictable. However, given the factors involved, certain outcomes are more probable than others. That’s just common sense. Or so it would seem.

My Final Thoughts (A little more deep than those of  Jerry Springer)

It is impossible to train or prepare your mind to react perfectly to an inevitable fate because such a thing does not exist.

You may challenge this statement with the most common response, “Death is inevitable isn’t it?” To which I would respond, “When and how will you die?”

Instead, you can choose to train your mind so it is more accepting to relinquish control back to you during times of stress, shock and crisis. This should greatly increase your probability of being able to react more positively under pressure and make the most appropriate decisions given the incredibly tough circumstances you are faced with.

Sorry Everybody!

Hi everyone. Under the advice of my most loved and respected critic, my Fiance, I am posting a retraction to the questionable material that I had written earlier. If you read anything to which I’m refering to please try and forget it. The fictional character or, “anonymous personality”, that I had created was done so in a purely joking manner. He was originally designed to possess personality traits so far removed from that of my own that nobody would know it was me. In no way, shape, or form was it meant to represent the values of the band I am working on, or any of it’s members.

As I got further into the design of the character, I found that about 4 years of writer’s block started to crack and give way to an enormous amount of creativity. That’s right, I couldn’t control the flood!

When I took a step back and further analyzed it, I realized that these types of ideas are probably better left to movies and short film where artistic expression is generally more accepted. What I created was a little too imaginative for a simple blog designed to assist in creating awareness for my music. Movies often break and push these boundaries but they have content ratings for a reason.

All in all, I have reconsidered the importance of my responsibilities as an artist and writer.

Thanks everyone! Again, stay tuned for something real next time!

Hello, my name is…

Well everyone. It’s me, Chris. Like I had to say that right? Anyone who visits this today is probably doing so because they are my facebook friends and saw my status advertising it. So you all know who I am.

My goal for using this new found tool is to make connections with other musicians, bloggers (is that even the term?), friends, and whoever feels the need to comment on whatever I’m posting here. Overall, it’s a great way to advertise anything that I choose to. Especially my musical projects.

Once my good buddy Kenneth and I get this new band up and on the go, I’ll be posting updates on what we’re doing. All I can say right now is that it took a while but we’re finally getting things started. Several songs are in the works and we need a drummer, 1 or 2 guitar players, and possibly a piano player. Some of the ideas we’ve had are actually coming about through the piano, which is totally new to me. Personally, I’ve never sat down with the intention to write using a piano before, but Kenneth’s got a great ear for it and I’m starting to see how more creative lyrical melodies can be developed. Neither of us can really play the damn thing but I can fake it about as good as Jenna Jameson does. Well…..maybe not that good!!

I’m not too sure if we’ll need 2 guitar players yet either. I usually like to determine that after I’ve had a chance to study the tunes a little and measure how far we want to take the complexity.

So that’s it. Stay tuned.