My good friend Carson (AKA Cayso) made a radical decision for his New Year’s Resolution. Lose weight? Nope. Teach himself to cook? Nyet. Take a lavished vacation? No sir. Carson has committed to continuing towards his dream of blowing up in the rap game by putting out a new song every week of 2014. How has he began that journey? By creating a story that coincides with the release of each and every song.
To give this entry a little more kick I’ll be sprinkling in some of my favorite Cayso tracks throughout the post. Enjoy!
Carson and I share many of the same ideals about life, pursuing dreams, about not living a life that is limited by other’s ideas of what your life should be. In one conversation several months ago I distinctly remember Carson saying, “Why is my dream any different from anyone else’s? What makes my dream of being a rapper any less likely than someone else’s dream of getting a career in a 9 to 5?”
Ironically, Carson is a part of a group called “No9to5” a group dedicated to challenging the idea that life has to be spent facing a computer screen in a tiny cubicle. This group uses music to show the world that life can be whatever we choose to make it, a message I think we all need to be reminded of regularly. Fortunately for us, we will have a new song every week by my buddy Cayso to keep us on that positive path.
Carson has done something very important in taking on this challenge to put out a new song every week of 2014, he has given himself small, bite size goals working towards a tremendous goal of 52 new songs in a year. Now although they are smaller goals, that does not mean that this will be easy.
Imagine trying to come up with new lyrics, new rhymes, new stories to tell, every week for an entire year. To try to differentiate your beats, change your flow, and grow as an artist. Hell, it ain’t gonna be easy but doing this will help Carson develop and flourish in his art in a way he never has before. Only by pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones do we ever really grow.
An ambitious goal? Absolutely. A challenging one? You bet. These are the types of goals that life are meant to be filled with. Every month, week, and day we should be looking back at the successes that filled every second! When our mentality says, “Well it is impossible to be successful all the time,” then you have just taken the first step towards guaranteeing you will never find yourself feeling successful every single day.
As Carson and I were talking today I took a look at one of his videos on Youtube then saw a few of his others linked on the side. I said excitedly, “Carson, do you realize these 4 videos combined have over 9,000 views?!” Most people have never even published something on Youtube, let along had 9000 people watch it! I said, “Do you realize how many hours, no scratch that, DAYS people have spent watching your music?” Well I did some math, lets say an average of 3 minutes per song x 9000 views….. that comes out to 7.5 DAYS that his fans have spent watching his videos and listening to his music. And that is just 4 of his songs, imagine how things will blow up when he has 52 new songs out on the net.
We talked a lot today about how sometimes our passions, our dreams, and our goals can turn into work. We forget about the love and excitement we felt at the start because we are too bogged down in the moment and the present challenge. Never lose sight of the bigger goal, realize that the time you spend working towards it today is an investment in your dreams. Those are some of the best investment you can make, an investment in yourself and who you are meant to be.
Challenge yourself to change your mentality, challenge our negative voice in your head, embrace your passions and the person inside who you know you are meant to be! You never know when one song, one book, one performance, one speech, or one presentation will be the one that takes you on the ride of a lifetime. The ride you always knew you were meant to have.
Take a chance, take a shot, and don’t ever let failure deter your from what you know you are meant to do!
Here is one of Carson’s latest songs featured on Bound2HipHop:
http://www.bound2hiphop.com/music/promo-singles/cultivating-wisdom-prod-meshaun-creed-caysopro/
Here is where you can see the developing story of the hero in Carson’s year-long story:
http://cayso.tumblr.com/thestory
Thank you for inspiring me every day Mom, I love you so much.
– Brian