I teach and mentor young women at the institute of music and the funny thing is that I have met a few women who realize this is not their dream. You can tell when it is not their dream. They think it is their dream but they are stalled — it is getting hard and it’s really not that fun for them. I read this quote somewhere that I tell my students.
“You know it is your dream if you enjoy the process and almost don’t even care about the result. You are so passionate about the doing of it the result almost doesn’t matter. and you know it is not your dream but it is somebody else’s dream for you if you endure the process for the result.”
I think it is a remarkable litmus test. Those are thing things that get the best results because the process is the result. If you are just pacing through the process, it is not going to come to much.
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That was it for me. In my field of classical music, you have to be well on the way to making it by the time you finish your conservatory. You have to give it 100%. Your life is subordinated to being available to take every opportunity. I had to be ready to go anywhere, be anywhere, and be prepared. I met so many great people and many wonderful adventures but it precluded being able to develop long-term relationships or a normal 20-something life. You have to enjoy the journey or you get defeated by the process. When so much is invested, you feel like you have to produce for the investors. – 40-something, wife, mom, OH