Sing To Serve Others

Brett Manning

August 26, 2010

We know that having an attitude of gratitude can keep us upbeat and lessen the length and severity of the occasional pity party or fit of jealousy. Gratitude can help to keep you emotionally stable and at peace with yourself, with others, and with your surroundings. That attitude implies that you have a lot going for you, and that attitude encourages you to build on what youâ€™re grateful for.

Your singing voice and all aspects of your creativity are uniquely yours to engage. Itâ€™s all certainly influenced by others and your environment. Itâ€™s shaped by your wants and wishes, worries and wonders. An attitude of gratitude keeps you feeling both humble and highly honored to be yourself in the presence of others whose gifts are also unique.

The Gift of Giving

There is another attitude and practice that once engaged can help you survive the extreme highs, lows, and frustrating plateaus in the pursuit, development, and maintenance of your singing career. This attitude can best be summed up as one of service.

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Real success in life comes with making a difference or having an impact on others. In order for a singer to have a successful, long-lasting career, popularity and having an impact on others are obviously key. But popularity strictly for the sake of being rich and famous is entirely self-serving, and for many leads to self-destruction in the long run.

By using your gift of singing to serve, you immediately put yourself in a place that both humbles you and honors your gift. And again, this can naturally reinforce a feeling of being grateful.

Measuring your service

There is a real danger that can come if the sense of service and gratitude are not active and nurtured. You can fall prey to feelings of worthlessness if youâ€™re not getting the gigs, not getting any cuts, or have no sizable following or growing fan base.

In order to stay focused on a sense of service, you should always ask yourself questions like: what can I do to give the audience the best show possible? How can I deliver the most fully realized version of each song I sing? What do I need to work on to improve the quality of my stage presence? What is required for me to ensure that my audience is inspired or encouraged or simply feels better by seeing my show? What can I do to help out my accompanist or band members? How can I make my voice stronger?

Purpose + Potentional

Questions like these keep you focused on how best to serve others with your gift. It validates your purpose, place, and potential. The focus is not on how much money youâ€™ll make or how famous youâ€™ll be. This is not to say that you shouldnâ€™t dream or that you should only work for free or little compensation. The focus shifts from self-service and self-consciousnesses to your awareness of the potential positive impact you have on others. It also reminds you of the importance of serving those that must be satisfied and hungry for more, so you can make a living as a singer.

Focus on service, not compensation

This perspective of gratitude and service keep you looking for positive reinforcement. This dual perspective validates your gift. It can even remind you of your deeper meaning and reason for singing and the deeper meaning it has for those you serve. For many people singing is healing. Itâ€™s clearly a form of sharing and communicating. Singing can touch the heart and stir the soul of the singer and the listener. It is a powerful tool for reconciliation, for bringing peace, and for getting people fired up. You must keep your focus on being grateful for your gift. You must stay committed with gratitude for the opportunity to use that gift to serve others. The more focused you become on improving service, your gift will grow, and you will find your audience. If your focus is strictly fame and fortune, youâ€™ll either burn out or burn bridges in your need for a self-serving high or fix.

Learn To Serve Your Best

The best way to stay committed to serving others is to keep learning, to improve your craft, to review the basics, to try new things. Get to know some of the people that youâ€™ve come to see as your greatest fans and critics and learn from them. Find out what theyâ€™d like to see and hear. This approach will keep your mind supple, your heart open, your soul caring and generous â€“ and it will keep you younger as well. Listen to and learn from your teachers as well as your peers. Share information and experiences that will help you remain open, strong, and also malleable when you need to change or adapt to a situation.

Align yourself with opportunity

Recognize challenging times and seasons of struggle as periods when your creativity is taken to task. Give thanks for the challenges that come and the growth that will follow. Give thanks for the opportunities to serve others that will come as a result of your desire to be your best and do your best to serve.

Service Check Up

Whenever you find yourself lapsing into self-indulgence or self-pity, stop and take time to think about things you are grateful for that have come as a direct result of your singing. Stop and think about people who have thanked you after a performance. Take time to think of those who have had a hand in honing your craft and in helping to shape and fine tune your singing voice. Write down their names, and thank them any way you can. Then, for each of these questions, ask how you were served, and then consider the impact that your being served has had on how you strive to serve others. This attitude of serving others will give you peace and purpose through the unavoidable highs and lows, twists and turns, that will come on your journey to true singing success.