I can’t tell you exactly why, but as soon as I had my first child I began having a terribly difficult time making decisions. And I’m not talking huge, life-altering, “Oh my gosh, what if we don’t do this one thing or that other thing,” decisions, I mean “What kind of peanut butter am I buying today?,” types of decisions. The mundane, the arbitrary – these kinds of choices seemed impossible for me to tackle. Well, my oldest is six. So this has been going on in my brain and body for a while, and it’s become my new normal, so I’ve learned how to roll with it.
As you can imagine, this comes up frequently in the process of launching my own voice studio. What do I call it? (I’ve got a funny story about an almost-name, but that’s for another time.) How do I approach the process of inviting clients into my studio? How do I, when do I, why do I or don’t I…. it becomes kind of a mental swirl if I don’t stay organized with detailed notes. And tons of coffee seems to help me sort my thoughts.
Another thing that helps me stay focused on the big picture is reminding myself to enjoy the process. This is something I’ve learned over the years, and am still practicing daily. I don’t always do it “well,” and I sometimes get overwhelmed with the “little things,” but I do find that I am so much more productive and joyful when I can savor the rungs of the ladder as opposed to constantly fixating on some destination, which – let’s face it – is most likely constantly changing anyway. Each little project that helps my studio space become it’s best fills me with gratitude.
The studio itself has been ready to go for some time now, so our little family has been focusing on making the waiting room into a place that people might like to hang out while they wait for their lesson or come to pick up a student. The floor is brick and the walls were pepto-pink stucco, so we knew we wanted to make some changes and create a more inviting space. We ordered a couple of rugs and put out some chairs, a table, and magazines, but somehow it didn’t quite seem finished. After some mulling, we decided we needed to paint the walls. A family trip to Lowe’s ensued, and my three-year-old and I were looking at paint. I was thinking warm neutrals, something welcoming and calming, so when he picked up a lush yellow, I wasn’t necessarily prepared to go with his design choice. Then I saw the name of the paint color: Top Banana. My little guy was so into it, and our space is called Banana Street Voice Studio, so we got a sample and brought it home. As soon as we rolled it up on the wall, we knew it was perfect!
I was surprised at how easily I made this “little” choice. Wall color is the kind of thing I’d have typically agonized over, much like deciding what brand of peanut butter to buy. But somehow this was easy. Sometimes things are just too much of a coincidence to pass up. And, hey, sometimes three-year-olds just know what’s up.
Our new waiting room – white rocking chairs are on their way. Our neighborhood rogue kitty, KiKi, is trying things out.
Cass Panuska 