BWW Blog: Micah Young - Climb Every Mountain

Mountains are daunting and awe-inspiring. They leave us breathless and at the same time, feeling a little helpless. How do you climb the mountain? Every journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

I find the more creative people are, the better we are at making excuses. Gone are the days of: "the dog ate my homework." Now we are older and wiser; excuses like, "I can't, I don't feel well," and "I would love to but I have this thing," creep into our conversations. Showing up for other people is hard. Showing up for ourselves is even harder.

We invent reasons and plausible deniability to help us procrastinate. 'I didn't know about it, therefore I am not responsible.' Why do we do this? Because looking at a task like climbing a mountain is simply too hard.

Work in our professional lives, particularly when we are endeavoring to create something new, is hard. Insurmountable. I find myself in conversation with other professional artists and performers about this; we all have the same doubts and fears. Writing is scary. Singing is scary, as are many other worth-while tasks in life. And while learning a new musical score, or even writing one feels like a mountain too big to climb, taking it one step at a time is the only way we can accomplish the task.

Photo Credit: Koan