Hi there, I'm Debbie Melman, your guest host for the week. Welcome to Radio Headspace
and to Thursday. This week is about designing a more intentional life and career. I'm so grateful
to be able to have both after all these years. It allows me to better heed my creative curiosities
and feel more fulfilled, but it was by no means a linear path. And this is often true in the creative
field or really any career. Today I'd like to talk about patience and the role it has and still
plays in my life. I have learned to have patience in my career the hard way. And I've learned
to have patience in my career because I've had to have patience in my career, whether I wanted to
or not. Most things have taken me a long time to be able to achieve. And as a result, I had to
cultivate patience. Many many years ago, I interviewed one of the members of the band Van Halen.
I interviewed David Lee Roth and David Lee Roth was the very flamboyant frontman for Van Halen
for many many years. In 1984, my first year out of college, Van Halen was one of the most popular
bands on the planet. And you couldn't really read anything or go anywhere without hearing something
about Van Halen. And here I was sitting across from David Lee Roth, the flamboyant frontman of the
band. And though I was there to talk to him about all the things he had done since, it was too
delicious a moment for me to let pass by without asking him what it felt like to be the most
popular man in the world at that time. And so I asked him at that moment, he became quite solemn
and almost somber. And he looked at me and he said, Debbie, you have to be really careful when you
get to the top of the tallest mountain in existence. Because when you get there and there's
nothing any higher, it's always cold, you're almost always alone and there's only one direction to
travel. And I knew what he was saying in that moment. I think it's important for people to be very
cognizant at the speed in which they want to do things. I find it now much more fulfilling to be
taking slow steps up the mountain. I don't ever want my best work to be behind me. I don't want to
be the person that did something great 20 years ago and is still trying to recapture that moment.
I want to keep bettering myself and the best way to do that is to take small steps up the mountain.
Really, you don't want to peak until the day before you die. And so if you think of your career,
as a long game, you'll be able to create true mastery. One other thing I want you to think about,
as you think about the speed in which something does or doesn't happen, is the notion that you are
somehow required to fake it until you make it. While I understand where that term has come from and
how that can help people feel more confident in trying and attempting to do something, I don't believe
that humans should fake anything. And I mean anything. What I think is more important than faking it
until you make it is making it until you make it. Keep making things. Keep making your creative
endeavors. Keep making a way you want to think about how you do things. And as you continue to
make more and more things, you'll become more depth at making them. And then you'll be able to
make it until you make it. All right, that's all for today. Come back tomorrow to hear my thoughts
about work, life, balance. And I have a lot of thoughts about that. Thanks for listening. And
I'll see you back here soon.
