Taylor Neal Learning Journal Assignment 1

Learning Journal Assignment 1

What is your unique gift? – Do you believe in it enough to invest everything you have in it?

I believe my unique gift is a combination of all of the skills I’ve acquired as a musician and as a producer. I’m a classically trained french horn player with a good concept of music theory and strong relative pitch. I am a guitarist that learned by ear at a very young age and I’ve picked up many other instruments along the way. I have been passionate about recording since I was about 15 years old and I’ve had experience recording many different styles of music, including rock, acoustic, jazz, electronic, and classical. I would invest everything I have in my gift because I know how passionate I feel towards creating music and the skills I’ve acquired so far add up to set me apart from other producers.

What difference are you trying to make in the world? – How passionate are you about doing this?

There is a feeling I get when I help others achieve their goals and it drives me to want to help as much as I can. I love helping people discover their sound to share with the world. I feel bad about myself when I’m not being creative or productive, and when I’m busy doing a lot of great things I feel amazing. This has it’s pro’s and con’s but I’ve learned that when i’m on top of things I feel more empowered and inspired to make an impact on myself and the people around me.

How do you define success for yourself? – What challenges do you face in order to create success?

I define success by how comfortable I am in the environment I’m in and financially. I want to be able to make enough money doing what I love to support a family and live in a place where I can feel like myself. There will be a lot of challenges I’ll face to get to this point. Financial stability will be one of them, especially if I make the majority of my income through freelance.

What is career vision and a mission?

Career vision is having a strong idea of how much time and money a career will have for an individual, backed up with research of real life examples and advice from real people who are currently in the profession making a living. Career mission is the goals an individual will set to reach the ideal place in that career.

Can you innovate and creates value and successfully communicate that value to intended audiences?

I feel like I am good at having an idea of what the intended audience is looking for and using my skills to achieve something close to what the audience wants. I think my creativity and innovation in music creating helps me get to that goal of presenting the audience what they want to hear, whether it’s with electronic composition or producing. I think in general I can do more research and preparation to know more about what the audience wants.

Do you have a positive attitude?

I believe that my positive attitude often gets in the way of my creative process. I’ve been raised to be a people pleaser and to be respectful of the people above me, but sometimes that stops me from forming my own opinion of artistic creation or communicating my artistic opinion to others to achieve a common goal. I think a positive attitude is vital in the creative process because it can be contagious and inspire a group of people, but I also think it is important to know how to communicate an idea without being afraid of hurting people’s feelings. Often I find myself caring too much of what other people will think of me and that holds me back from expressing myself artistically to the fullest extent.

Have you set your goals? What is your road map to success? Can you set inspiring and realistic goals?

I love setting short term goals for myself, but I tend to forget about the goals I set or have trouble holding myself accountable to them. I think I could take more time in setting long term goals and finding someone to hold me accountable to them. I think one of my goals is to become a better networker and communicator. That will shape my road map to success, because the skills I have can only take me so far if I can’t network to the fullest extent.  

Do you have and/or acquire the necessary expertise to actualize your vision?

I think I am learning all of the steps to obtaining the necessary expertise to actualize my vision, but it’s up to me how far I go. If I take more time to do the research and network better, I will be in better shape to actualize my vision. If I just wait around to get a lucky break, I won’t go very far.

What are your priorities? Can you set priorities?

Some of my priorities include respecting the art and the artist in whatever medium that may be, organization, and communication. I think I am good at setting priorities but making them applicable in every aspect of my life is something that I could improve on.

What opportunities are you looking for? What opportunities are you creating or intend to create?

I’m looking for more networking opportunities within the music scene I affiliate myself in, as well as opportunities in areas I’m not as comfortable in. I’d like to start to get a better idea of how I’d like to promote myself and be more intentional with my conversations with people I’m networking with. This will lead to better opportunities in my future.

How comfortable are you with uncertainty? What risks are you willing to take?

I am not so much afraid of taking risks, but I am more afraid of how those risks will affect my future if I make a big mistake. I believe I am a humble and quick learner, but it is easy to assume I know how to do something even if I don’t really know everything about it.

When facing challenges, do you persevere or do you walk away?

I enjoy facing challenges that I think I can handle. More often than not I persevere, but that sometimes leads to me doing an incomplete job and not working to my fullest potential.

What experience have you learned the most from?

High pressure situations are the best teacher. Although the can bring along a lot of anxiety, I like the challenges that a high pressure situation can have and I like the rewarding feeling of overcoming those pressuring situations. An example of this is the Electroacoustic Barn Dance and the role I’ve played in the past. A lot of times there is no time to think about options, you have to just do what you know is right and be confident in your choices.

What actions are you taking to realize your vision? Are you consistently taking action?

Communicating with other people that share a similar vision is one way I take action to realize my vision. However it is not a consistent process and I can work on branching out more and doing more networking.

How well do you put things in context? Are you able to easily respond to changes in your environment? What’s your best example?

I am relatively easy going, so I do adapt to change fairly well. As an RA, we have to be able to be attentive and respond quickly to an ever changing environment.  

What is your plan to continually grow and evolve? How have you grown or evolved in there past year or three?

I continue to grow and evolve exponentially as I get older. I have learned more about myself and the things I’m passionate about in the past year than I have my whole life, and I expect to continue this pattern of growth and realization both personally and technically with the experiences I have.

How easy is it for you to reach out to others to ask for support and to offer help?

I have a very hard time asking for help. I feel like a burden and I feel like I’m letting myself down and the people around me down when I need to ask for help. This often leads to a lack of delegating tasks and it holds me back from experiencing my fullest potential.

How are you inspiring others to join and/or support your mission in order to create a financially sustainable enterprise that allows you to live your gift and contribute something valuable to society? – If you aren’t currently, how do you intend to?

I intend to inspire others to support what I’m passionate about after I have a better understanding of myself and what I want to do with my skills. Right now I’m sort of all over the place and it holds me back from excelling at one specific thing. I need to do more research on what it means to be financially sustainable with the skills I currently hold, and I hope to be inspired to do more of that throughout this course.