Learn and Grow to Get Better
LEARN AND GROW TO GET BETTER
I’ve always found learning and growing to be cyclical. You learn. You grow. And then you’re right back to learning. Learning and growing are so enmeshed. It’s often like you don’t know where one ends and the other begins. Everything in life is about LEARNING AND GROWING. From our time in the womb to our last breath, we’re learning. From learning our mother’s voice to learning how to let go of this life and say good-bye when our time here is complete, we’re LEARNING. We’re GROWING. From parents to siblings to other relatives to friends to teachers to church families to neighbors to strangers to professors to employers to fellow employees to community members to the drive-in cashier to the stylist or the barber to a random acquaintance, we are LEARNING AND GROWING from others around us.
At some point in our lives, along this continuum of “teachers”, we begin to make choices about those who will teach us…about those who we choose to pour into our lives…about those who lives we choose to pour into…about those we choose to listen to…about those who will impact our lives profoundly…for good…for bad…about those from whom we choose to LEARN and GROW. In our learning, we learn to learn. We learn to become experts in certain areas. We learn to have fun. We learn to be a friend. We learn what it is we really want to do. We grow. We learn to be ourselves…our BEST version of OURSELVES. We learn to be creative. We learn to make friends. We learn to live life. We grow. We learn how to pick up a new hobby. We learn how to finally finish what we’ve started. We learn to truly know the people we love. We learn to move on. We grow.
As I started my VoiceOver career, I had a lot of learning to do. I really didn’t think about the growing in the beginning. I made a list I called, “My VO Major TO-DO List” and put it in my phone so I’d always have it with me. I made it a bulleted list that I could check off items as I completed them. There were items to buy, topics to research, people to talk to, demos to record, and a website to create. The list was long. I had a little celebration when I was able to check off something on the list. It was only later when I realized that each check meant a ton of growing had occurred. First, figuring out what I needed to do was growth as I decided what to include on My VO Major TO-DO List. Ranking each item and prioritizing them in a numbered order was also growth. More times than not, each item on the list required multiple steps to complete properly, with each of those showing additional growth.
One such item on My VO Major TO-DO List: to record demos. Do this myself or hire someone? What kind of demo do I start with? Do I need music or other background noises? How do I do that? What scripts do I use? Do I need to write them myself? Do I buy them? Can I transcribe them from existing commercials or shows? Is that even legal? And the list goes on…and the LEARNING…and the GROWING.
I now KNOW stuff about VO. Things I didn’t even know I needed to learn a year ago are now things I can put in the KNOW column of VO. I KNOW how to record a demo. I KNOW how to set up recording equipment. I KNOW how to create a website. I KNOW how to produce an audiobook. I’ve done it a few times now. Whether it’s VO or something else in your life, I hope you’ve been inspired to LEARN AND GROW TO GET BETTER and move things that are important to you into the KNOW column in your life. Now…I’ve got to get back to recording in the studio to learn the next thing.
