DDPY Positively Unstoppable Challenge January Accomplishments

January has been about repair, preparation, planning, and empowerment.  It's been about bringing things back under my control and setting myself up to be successful in 1) the DDPY Positively Unstoppable Challenge, 2) my goal of becoming a great singer, and 3) my goal of supporting myself through my own dressmaking/patternmaking business.  Although at times this month has felt like a slog, I feel empowered.  I started the challenge on December 31, the day that it was officially announced, and I'm proud to have made great use of my time.  

Here's a list of my January accomplishments categorized by my goals:

DDPY Fitness 

• Completed at at least one DDPY workout every day for 31 days
• Learned how to use the timer on my phone camera
• Got a tripod for easier photography  
• Created DDPY challenge calendar and activity/achievement log   
• Mapped out DDP Own Your Life Audiobook 10 principles to owning your life
• Figured out iMovie basics
• Solved iCloud storage problem so I can edit submission videos 
• Took my 1st 6 photos
• Took my 2nd 6 photos - much increased flexibility!
• Lost 10lbs total - only 5 more to go!
• Lost 1 1/2" on my waist and 1 1/2" on my hips!
• Purchased a heart rate monitor
• Purchased and reading (70% through) Positively Unstoppable: The Art of Owning It

Singing Goal

• Set smaller singing goals
• Practiced Singing 21 out of 31 days
• Video recorded all January voice lessons, Thanks Paige!
• Edited voice lesson videos into movies for my reference & for DDPY submission
• Got my phone headphone jack issue solved (paid $40 to figure out that it was just the goddamn cord), but thankfully now I'm back to singing in the car for practice
• Practiced music with Charlie, Sonic Bunker (Thanks Jim!), and Alessia & co.
• Registered for an artist profile on NBC's The Voice
• Reviewed my voice lesson videos several times & expanded my notes
• Posted 1st singing blog for DDPY documentation
• Started Udemy Music Theory Course 
• Learned MuseScore basics

 Working for Myself Goal

• Got my website back after 3 years of my ex-husband holding it hostage 
• Website email and blog functions fixed and in working order - Thank you Carleigh!
• Purchased a garment steamer
• Researched viable patternmaking software alternatives to Gerber
• Had an informational meeting with Optitex sales rep
• Cleaned Cutting and Sewing Tables
• Taught a bellydance costuming workshop, Thanks Liz and co!
• Made a Harry Potter costume in exchange for website transfer
• Taken on 3 new alterations clients
• Used professional photography lighting setup for the first time (I've had it for more than a year and never used it)
• Went to a BNI business networking referral group meeting
• Earned $755 working for myself during January

Other January Wins

• CANCELLED SURGERY
• Applied for a job at Mountain Hardwear
• Got my laptop fixed and in working order, Thanks Nicole!
• Retrieved my wifi password

Alright February, BRING IT!!!

Captain Summer and her Secret Heart

March will be my 1 year anniversary of starting vocal lessons.  My downstairs neighbor (I call him Downstairs Dave) was MCing for the annual Crockett Get Lucky Prom, which is an adults only fundraiser for the local high school’s educational foundation.  The theme was 1970’s so I wore a vintage Frederick’s of Hollywood polyester peach halter maxi dress that I jazzed up with some rhinestones, and platform cork wedges.

              
There’s always a silent auction as part of the fundraiser, and one of the prizes was a month of music lessons from Fiat Music in Pinole.  I put my name down on the bidding sheet, and watched it like a hawk for the rest of the night.  At the time, I was thinking about taking piano.  I’d been teaching myself some stride from Ari Kast’s book and I wanted to progress faster (I took a year of piano lessons when I was 9, and I studied the violin for 16 years, so I can read music fluently).  But when I went to the store to redeem my voucher, I surprised myself a little when I said “I’m here to sign up for voice lessons”.  

Buried deep down in my secret heart I have always wanted to be a singer, but for years I kept it locked up for lots of reasons, mainly letting others’ emotional gravity keep me in a headspace of fear and stagnation.  But I knew that if I got some training and was persistent with my practice, that I would be good at it. 
 
My secret heart was right – I love it so much!  I practice in the car, I practice at home, I go out and practice at Karaoke, I jam with friends in the Sonic Bunker, I performed Lady Stardust at my restaurant’s cabaret.  Singing has turned into a staple of my life.  My brutal daily commute into San Francisco is so much more bearable when I practice while I’m driving.  Cause I can’t do a lot of multitasking when I'm doing the Emeryville Crawl, but I CAN sing.  My quality of life has improved drastically simply from not feeling like I’m wasting so much of my life in the car. 

And recently my teacher, Paige, gave me the nicest compliment, which was that she could tell when I come to my lessons, that I practice more and put the work in more than any of her other students.  Let me tell you, I have been beaming about that for weeks lol.

So anyway, I was doing great, and then I started the DDPY Positively Unstoppable Challenge for which I set this BIG VAGUE GOAL – to become a great singer, and immediately my practicing began to fall back.  This past Saturday (January 19), I had my 3^rd voice lesson since the challenge started (I've recorded all of them and am working on making clips so that you can hear my progress). Paige and I discussed my practice backslide, and we talked about the psychology behind it. 

1)      Fear of failure now that I’ve put this HUGE goal out there

2)      So then I don’t practice because I’m afraid of failing

3)      And then I’m ashamed because I don’t sound good 

4)      Then I don’t practice because I’m ashamed

5)      And then I feel guilty for not practicing

It all turns into this ridiculous downward spiral where I’m barely practicing because all these feeling of self-doubt have entered the picture. Whereas beforehand I was like “Of course I can do this.  Of course I’ll be good at this if I just put in the work.”  I was having so much fun and feeling so proud of myself before the challenge began, and I was embodying the confidence that Dallas has been pushing us to have!!  Then I became intimidated by my goal, anxiety, shame, guilt, fear of failure, fear of not being loved, fear of not being safe.  So we agreed that I should get back to what I was doing BEFORE I started the challenge, which is breaking it WAY WAY down into very specific micro-goals like getting a new consonant, vowel, or combo, a breathing exercise, etc. and HAVING FUN WITH IT.  

So here is a more reasonable breakdown of my singing goals.  Because this is something that my whole heart wants, and I would hate to get derailed due to some bad psychology

 

End Game Singing Goal

To become a GREAT singer

Large Goals

Be the featured singer on a PostmodernJukebox song

Make it onto The Voice

Play with famous musicians

Medium sized goals

Nail down Mistakes and sing it in public

Play with accomplished musicians

Diction and breathing techniques as second nature

Small Singing Goals

Get all the vowels

Get all the consonants

Develop proper flow from one phoneme to another

Consistent proper breathing technique

Consistent resonance

Hit the top 2 notes of “Lost onYou”

How to get there?

Daily Practice

Weekly lessons

Karaoke 1x weekly

Open mic 1x monthly

Complete online music theory course

Start playing gigs w/ sonic bunker crew

Look for musicians to play with on Craigslist