Start as you mean to end...

​This week is about sticking to your guns. Too often, creatives get frustrated with their path and quit before they reach their true potential, or they listen to people who tell them they're never going to make it and, worse yet, they LISTEN to them. 

But behind almost every success story is a person who 
just
didn't
quit.

​Yesterday, I featured a song by Lindsay Stirling, who was told there was never going to be a market for what she did. As a child, she was diagnosed with crossed dominance, which was corrected using an eye-patch. It caused her some problems until she decided tow ork with it and pretend she was a pirate. To quote from her auto-biography, The Only Pirate At The Party:  
 
"Pirates don't take orders or ask permission,... They do what they want. Allow me to clarify. If your mom asks you to do the dishes, do not pull out your pirate attitude. But if someone tells you you’re not good enough, says your dreams are too lofty, or claims there is no room in showbiz for a dancing violinist — well then, by all means, pull out your eye patch, my friend, and take to the high seas."

One of the artists Lindsay has worked with is Lzzy Hale, co-founder of Halestorm. Lzzy and her brother Arejay have been making music since she was 13 and he was 10. They first started Halestorm on 1997, but it wasn't until 2005 that they got their first recording contract, and not until 2012 that they went big with "I Get Off."

It only took them 15 years to become an overnight success. 

In April of last year, I got to see Halestorm here in Springfield with Lita Ford and Dorothy. All through the show, she was adamant about following your dreams and staying true to yourself. I had started writing full time less than a year before, so her show was a huge affirmation to me that I was ont he right track.

So when you're fighting to keep going, being told to go with the flow, remember, this is YOUR dream, YOUR PASSION. Don't let anyone talk you out of being you. Be the Fire.

​Halestorm will be my theme group for this week. For today, a thought on Mondays. The energy you start a thing with tends to stick with it all the way through. Whether it's your latest project, a trip, even your day or week, how you start affects how you end.

Start strong. End strong. Stay strong.