A thousand bugs in my kitchen… and it’s my job to kill them!

----

<sub>This is my new daily Steem Blog, now in beta mode!</sub>

**INTRO**

My goal in life is to start a new genre. To inspire and invoke a new form of art into the world, sending ripples of creativity out into the universe for generations to come.

Right now I'm grinding out the early stages, working two jobs, starting an anarchist art collective, and recording + rehearsing a ton of new music. This daily Steem blog brings you the most useful lessons and ideas that I'm able to extract from each day of my crazy life.

It's kind of like a motivational blog, but with a lot more angst and confusion. Call me the anti-Tony Robbins. Lets do this:

——

![sunset.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmeqKqQDh21BCUufQVYFhzeLBnffeREx4ywSzEhgm4S3vM/sunset.png)

<h3>10:45</h3>

Lucky it turns out that my roommate is calling the bugs “termites” in a colloquial sense — they aren’t actually the wood-chewing monsters known as termites where I am from. Furthermore this batch of bugs is already mostly dead, and will not lead to further rounds of egg-hatching.

My panic receding, I grab a broom and sweep. These little things are moving around a lot, given that they are “dead.” I try not to think about it.

After 20 minutes I’ve got most of the nasty flies swept into one of four writing piles of death. I can’t find the damn dustbin to dispose of them once and for all.

At least this makes for a good excuse to avoid practicing the indie rock album.

<h2>Performance Technique and Recording Albums</h2>

<h3>11:15</h3>

I didn’t think it would be hard to learn some indie songs. My problem is endurance -- trying to increase my guitar-playing endurance to more easily get from start-to-finish. For the songs that run 3-4+ minutes with lots of chords, it is hard to not stop playing from exhaustion in my wrist.

This is a technique problem so I'm figuring out better ways to hold the guitar. It should get better soon.

The singing parts are easier to practice and I have more fun doing that. Improving my pitch so it’s performance-perfect is not easy but I can actually hear the changes from day to day. The vocals are probably the most important thing to practice, especially since I know the drums will turn out well.

If only my vision for other areas of my life was so clear. I’ve been eating fast food and not exercising at all this week.

It turns out that it’s hard to pour your heart+soul into an album *and* feed yourself.

<h2>Basic Survival = Challenge</h2>

I am getting a little better at these life skills like diet and exercise. At 28 years old I’m running out of time to treat my body the right way. I need to live by good habits to maintain my youth into my 30s and beyond.

This day is becoming lethargic, and I can’t decide if I should give in or try to do something.

It feels like I am so exhausted from my work days lately that I am just sleeping through a lot of my days off. It’s no good. I want to spend my days off on enjoyable recreational activities.

It feels like **“Pick 2 of 3: Sleep, Money, Fun”**

But it also feels a lot like a basic patience thing. I don’t think any of today’s problems will sill be bothering me in 6 months.

For the first time in many years, I feel content with the jobs & projects I am committed to. There’s no pressure to add or subtract anything.

What I want to do is get extremely good at executing on this combination of tasks in front of me, to be awesome at these jobs while still finding time to relax. I want to enjoy the process.

If I can break away from some of the silly day-to-day issues like diet and exercise, I think I have all my bases covered now. I have good friends, creative projects, jobs, and health. And I like where I live.

Maybe soon I will need less nap days.

<h2>Hundreds and Hundreds of Flyers</h2>

<h3>14:00</h3>

As for today, naptime is over. There are tons of new flyers for me to put up at Neptunes and Kings.

This is one of my main responsibilities at the bar + venue: to update the flyers. It’s more work than you might think. We are advertising dozens of shows at any given moment, and across the building there are about a dozen distinct zones for flyering. That can add up to 100s of flyers for me to hang, check up on, and eventually take down.

The amount of time + money that goes into the flyers is eye-opening to behold.

I think flyering and physical object advertising are way underestimated in the digital-first landscape of 2019. Most of the biggest bands in Raleigh have a substantial physical presence all over the city.

Lucky we’ve got a reliable and affordable print shop right downtown, [Turner’s](https://www.turnerprinting.com/). When the time comes to release my next music project, I have ideas for how to use printing as part of the promotional process.

My shift at Kings is over in a little shy of 3 hours, but it manages to feel like it takes up most of my day.

<h2>Mindset for the Day</h2>

<h3>17:30</h3>

When you’re doing the work to chase the results, you lose. That leads to expectations and burnout. 

The good thing is to do the work for the experience. At the very least we can learn from these experiences, and often we can enjoy the experiences too.

Meditation teaches us that moments aren’t “going” anywhere. Moments just exist, and we tune into them by being present.

For the next few days I am needing to tune-up my daily routine, to get away from my computer and try to stay present with whatever is happening.

-----

<h2>BITE-SIZED FUN STUFF</h2>

**What I’m Listening To:** Vampire Weekend - [Unbearably White](https://open.spotify.com/track/2FjoCQaBoiEKs3FCvD0HkR?si=88nQOlXfRaKxsSo9XBUcgg)

----

Did you enjoy this post? You can show some love by following me on Steemit, leaving a comment, or best of all [Join My Mailing List, 2-3 emails per month](https://mailchi.mp/ead1dae7b76c/heymattsokol)

<center>![matt sokol logo.jpeg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmf34HkLDmEhRQucW9AVHydx3Vd3bZiZXj8q6rTRy9dX8N/matt%20sokol%20logo.jpeg)</center>