Life Sucks--Write A Song

It's been another month without a contract offer. Your instruments are in pawn shops, coworkers poke fun at you because people saw you with "what's his name," a famous fellow musician that you were lucky enough to run into at a work function, your parents want you to return to college rather than listen to you telling them you can't afford to come home for Christmas again this year, and your spouse's job didn't hand out bonuses, again, so you have to take the money you hoped to use for supplies for gas money until payday. Gee-sounds like a good lyric! Write it down! Here are a few more ways to keep your spirits up and turn those bad things into good things, and a little on why you need to.

JOURNALING = LIFESAVER

Journaling is a known cure for mild depression. It helps you vent frustrations and build confidence simultaneously. If your boss or coworkers put you down at work about your music, job harassment experts claim that journaling each event, along with the approximate moment it occurred, could actually show over time that you are being bullied, and can be grounds for complaint. Law experts will advise that showing these aren't isolated incidents, but a protracted problem can even give you grounds for a lawsuit, or at least let you transfer to a department where you are appreciated, not a source of entertainment for idle deadwood that are probably something the business should trim from the payroll if they have so much free time on their hands to tease others. Ignoring idiots at work is often the best revenge, though, and journaling helps you to take the edge off your anger by taking action without doing anything stupid that would make you look as bad as them to your boss. Let them be the ones to look stupid and blow up-bullies are unstable, anyway, or they wouldn't have the need for sadism or feel the need to put others "in their place." Just write a powerful or funny lyric about it that you might never publish, but could make you smile when they are at their worst-amused smiles drive bullies batty, because they aren't getting you upset like they need to in order to get their sickie "fix."

NETWORKING FOR LAUGHS

Instead of whining with other whiners, try hanging with some winners who make you feel like a winner, too, and if asked, mention the positive things you've been doing of late. If your music hasn't been doing the greatest, put a positive spin on it but remain truthful. Do mention that you have been able to write poems off the cuff for your online creative writing group, and you found that practice has really helped your confidence, not whine about the long spell of writer's block you had prior to that. Mention that cool new guitar you might check out rather than just whine that you had to sell yours, again, and perhaps ask for their opinions on certain models. Discuss things you have in common like sports you play, pets you have that did something funny and maybe mention it sounds like an excuse for a song. See if you can just jam with them sometime and maybe add a few licks or lyrics of your own if you don't have a band at the moment, and ask if they know any loose personnel that would be a good match for you. The main thing is to keep things upbeat, and let them lift you-you will feel energized, and perhaps with a few good new ideas of how to work your way out of whatever slump you might be in at the moment. Good friends and good conversation have also been proven to be good stress and blues busters-use them as often as needed to help you get out of any dumps you may find yourself in as well as make future problems easier to tackle.

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