1.5 years waiting... and then...

One of my students told me he wanted to become a music industry journalist. That sparked my attention because as a Broadcast Journalist major in college in the 90s, I had worked on the college radio station as the music industry was booming in all genres.

After we chatted about types and interests in our music experiences, I asked the student what he wanted to do as a music journalist. He let me know he wanted to interview up and coming artists and create a blog/website around the interviews.

"What's stopping you?", I asked. He looked at me funny and replied that he had been thinking about this for some time and he never thought about what was stopping him.

I continued to move forward in my push to get him to start. I asked him if he had anyone in mind for an interview. He did and asked what he should text that person. After a few edits to his text asking for his first interview, he hit the send button and off went his first try to get an interview.

The next day he came into class with a bit of disappointment on his face. "H, I haven't hear anything."

"That's okay. Give this artist another 24 hours.", I replied.

Next day nothing again.

"Ok then, let's keep trying. Who else do you know that you can interview?"

He let me know that he had a few others in mind. Text one of them. Copy the same text you sent and do it now. Done.

Later that day he came into class again letting me know he got an interview! He was ecstatic! I congratulated him asked him what he now needed to do to prepare for the interview. "I guess I need some questions." he said. YEP!

We worked together for 5 minutes researching ways to do an interview and questions to ask. In 5 minutes, we had a plan. He copied the questions and sent them to the interviewee along with some dates and times to do the interview.

The next day he came in and was excited again. "H!!! I got two more artists to do an interview!" We were in our intervention period which students have time to work on school work with educators and peers. I asked him when he was going to start his blog site. He said he was going to do that this weekend.

I said start now.

He paused, went to his computer and started looking up how to create a site. By the end of the day he had already created a logo and a basic landing page.

He showed me it all at the end of the day. He looked at me with a smile and said, "H, I have been thinking about this for 1 and a half years. 1 and 1/2 years!"

I nodded. I let him know this is what happens when you take that first step towards your goal. You DO and don't wait.

It takes courage. It sometimes takes a push. Get yourself an accountability partner and start building today.

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