This is a vinyl cleaning machine. A recent purchase. I am a very happy record collector, crate digger and music listener.
As we go through life, much like a vinyl record, we pick stuff up along the way. When we start out, our grooves are clear, we know where we are going, our song is true. But as the days, weeks and years progress we can find ourselves picking up dust and fingerprints. Other people’s priorities impinge on what we originally set out to do, we accrue ideas, roles and habits. And let’s face it, there is a LOT of dust in this social-media driven world. Plenty that gets in the way of us singing our true song. Plenty that distorts our music.
Serious vinyl collectors clean their records on a regular basis, whether they look like they need it or not, and I think this is a good practice.
How can we also get to what our undistorted music is? How can we focus on the things that matter and only those?
Firstly, do you know what is important to you? Have you spent some time considering exactly what that is? It might not be just one thing; after all, we do lead multifaceted lives. Then, in the medium term, what do you want to achieve with these priorities? Thinking about this can help guide you towards what you need to do daily to support your goals. You now have the tracks for your record.
The next task is to play those songs every day and not to let other noise overwhelm them. However, it’s inevitable that we will accumulate dust, so it’s important to clear the grooves from time to time. We need to check in with ourselves and review whether our priorities are still appropriate. Maybe we need to add a new track to our album. Is our method for reaching our goals still optimal? And have we picked up any dust along the way? If something is distorting your music, it’s time to clean it out.
In my re-focus, one of things I realised I needed to do was update my website, and that was an opportunity for a deep clean. What areas of work did I really want to do? What do I enjoy? Where do I think I can add the greatest value to organisations? In that respect, my song has a lot more clarity and definition now. I wish you the same!