Live a Life of Consequence

Do you sometimes feel like your life has no consequence?

We want our lives to matter.  We want our love to matter. And, we want our work to matter.

But, how can we feel confident that it does? It starts by first figuring out your consonance.

So, what is consonance?

It’s best explained by one of my favorite stories.  Sing along if you know the words.

In 1968, and a young musician found himself toiling away, singing cover songs for the graveyard shift at dive bars in a coastal town in New Jersey. Then one day, a friend called with an invitation to meet a big-time producer in Manhattan. It was an offer he would be folly to refuse, and yet, he knew he wasn’t ready.  He sat down, took a long hard look at himself, and realized that he didn’t sing as well as Roy Orbison, and he didn’t play as well as Jimmy Hendrix. If he was going to make this opportunity count, he was going to have to figure out what it was that he did do.

So, he sat down at the piano and wrote and wrote until he found his voice.  He found that which was uniquely his.  He borrowed a guitar from a friend, slung it over his shoulder, and bought a bus ticket to Manhattan.  When he got there, he walked up to the big time producer’s office, sat down, dropped his head, and just started playing the album. The producer listened.  When Bruce Springsteen finally looked up, the producer said, “We need to make this album right now.”

That never would have happened if he kept on keeping on, being someone else, but just, you know, a worse version of them.  We are best at being ourselves because it is where we are expert.  It is what we know best.  And when we don’t do it, we deprive the world of our gifts.

It was in writing that album that Springsteen found his confidence in his own personal voice, his consonance.  With Greetings from Asbury Park, he would shape a new sound in the industry, and launch a life of consequence.

Now, we aren’t all going to be Bruce Springsteen. But we can live our own version of consequence based on our own version of consonance.  We can all share our unique gifts with the world.

How do you find your consonance?

Today, I challenge you to spend time thinking about what is it that you do better than anybody else. Where do you shine? Where do you want to shine? What kind of life do you want to live and what do you need to master to get there?

I implore you: stop trying to be someone else.  The world needs you to be you.  Because everyone else?  That’s already been done.

Need more inspiration? Take a look at my video here and subscribe to my YouTube channel for continued inspiration. Then, sign up below for my newsletter (below) and start living your own, unique limitless life.

Find your confidence, master your consonance, and you, too, can live a life of consequence.