The Why

Hello everyone!

I have tons of ideas bouncing around in my head, and writing a blog is one of them. I’ve never really properly written one, and I have approached this with some trepidation, due to just that fact. But at the same time I have come to realize that learning by doing is probably the best approach for something like this.

In the summer of 2019 I turned 40. At the time I was suffering from a then unknown medical problem, which turned out to be reflux. Basically my stomach acids were getting into my throat causing a chronic inflammation. That leads to a swelling feeling at times, and it can also lead to trouble swallowing. Back then I didn’t know what it was, and I’d had the symptoms for most of that year. All sorts of thoughts were swirling around in my head, the worst ones being really dark. It was the not knowing.

During that half a year or so when my thoughts were really not in the most hopeful of places I had thoughts of my own mortality. I basically started asking myself, “why do I do the things that I do?” This was a question that had been bobbing around in my head from time to time earlier as well, and it again surfaced with the Covid outbreak in 2020 when musicians could no longer play live shows.

So what’s the answer? What is that why? Before I say what it is, I do have to say something about why I think it’s so important, at least to me. Every person in their work life knows what it is they do. The same goes for businesses. Most know how they do it. But there are very many who don’t know why they do it. So I used to be a teacher. That was what I did. How did I teach? Broadly speaking with a very relaxed style, using lots of humor, and trying to instill a sense of responsibility in my students (in other words, if you don’t want to work, and you’re fine with a poor grade, then that’s fine by me). I also wanted to help as many of my students either find something that they’re passionate about, and/or encourage them to go after that thing. That was the how (there’s more to it of course). So why did I do it? What was my why? Put simply it was to help and/or inspire my students so that they in turn might help and/or inspire others, thus making the world a better place. And that’s really why I do all of things that I do (no, going shopping for groceries doesn’t fall into this category).

Why am I saying all this? Because that’s also the reason I started this blog. Maybe I can help someone with some of my ramblings, which will in the future become more structured (hopefully). Also, will I keep posting them here? I don’t know. I’m not sure I like the layout of my website for this kind of thing, but we’ll see. How often will I post? I don’t know. We’ll see we’ll see about that too.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this type of thing. Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions, or topics you’d like to see me cover. Take care!
Cheers,

Elmo