WHY UNDERTAKE SUCH A CRAZY EXPERIMENT?
To bust limiting self-definitions. How many times a day do we stop ourselves from trying things because they seem like too much of a reach or too outside of our lane in life? Well, outside of the occasional church hymn, I'd never sung, so if we could get this song on the charts, it was going to to prove that we are all capable of amazing things if we're willing to take a flying leap out of comfort zones.
HYPOTHESIS:
If we disproved even one single self-limiting-definition, all of our self-truths come into question, and we would open ourselves up to a world of possibilities.
EXPERIMENTAL METHOD:
I wrote & recorded a song with Thorald & Isaac Koren (The Kin, BRÅVES, Brothers Koren) through their program, the Songwriter's Journey. Then I, who clearly defined as 'not a recording artist' challenged that definition by rallying help to get "Lost Warrior" to chart alongside 'real singers.'
RUNNING THE EXPERIMENT:
With the help of a simple 4 week email campaign, everyone held their breath the morning before the charts released. No matter which way it went, this conversation had been invaluable. Everyone who'd helped by donating their ninty-nine cents by purchasing the song had publicly made a claim that we weren't willing to go through life just accepting imaginary limits - especially when we put them on ourselves!
DATA ANALYSIS: WE DID IT!
When the itunes chart came out, we'd done it! "Lost Warrior" was lucky #7 in the top singer/songwriter category! There was officially a self-defined non-singer sitting right there on the itunes charts amidst very ‘real singers.’ Definition busted!
CONCLUSION:
We proved that this one single self-defined-limitation was not, actually, real. The idea that I, a non-singer, could never possibly have a charting single, had been blown out of the water thanks to the support of a tribe who very much wanted to bust some self-definitions of their own. If this ONE thing that seemed SO self-evident was, in fact, wrong, then what else could possibly be inaccurate? Everything. Anything. It is all up for challenge, for experiment. It's up to us to approach life as one long succession of a series of experiments. To challenge our own beliefs about ourselves. To discover who we really are. Have fun, and let me know what self-definitions you're busting.
