EPIPHANY The Second Wave - Segment 3
"Make a decision, take action, and follow through." ~ Michael Bernoff
2025 has started out surprisingly very well for me personally. Thank you Jesus! I took the first week to settle in and begin plans (not resolutions) for the next three months. Yeah, I’ve never been a fan of New Year’s Resolutions I’d like to recommend my dear friend Vanya Slaveva who in my notebook nails New Years Resolutions in the following article on her SubStack. I highly recommend it so you can prepare on the eve of 2026:
That’s why I make plans for the New Year, not ressolutions. As we head into the end of 2025’s first quarter I’m grateful and optimistic this year is better. The first three months of 2024 was all about not setting resolutions. Rather, all about just making those plans. Since early that spring twenty twenty four is pretty much a blur for me. Life was just a bunch of shadows in the fog of my treatment. I look back and recall I had a very good plan for the very first quarter of 2024. I would tackle three things I wanted to accomplish which had been on the back burner for perhaps decades!
My Plans for the first quarter of 2024 were ambitious! No, don’t say that! They were nothing out of the ordinary. They were just things I listed on my frequently ignored To-Do List!
To recap, Plan # 1 - On the morning of January 15, 2024 I began a five day workshop with Michael Bernoff, to kinda do a re-start for the upcoming year. Michael helped me reframe & refocus my mindset. One of the things Michael suggested I needed to do was just take action on a couple of my ideas, and follow through. I have a plethora of concepts sitting in my wish bucket. One of the things Michael suggested is to grab something that I would like to do but always let it sink to the bottom of the pile. He said to just make a decision! Within minutes I did something I never wanted to do - I signed up for a Toastmasters meeting for the very next night. I mean it couldn’t be that important, because it was at the bottom of my list, right?
At the heart of that large, exceedingly plump falsehood I created was the fact that… are ya sitting down? I WAS SCARED! TERRIFIED! OVERLOADED WITH ANXIETY!
I had sadly framed that organization in my mind as a sophomoric club, giving it absolutely no value - without ever doing any research on it. In addition I was able to brainwash myself into thinking I was far and above anything they could ever teach me, because I had been around forever in the entertainment industry and had experienced significant success. Finally, coming out from behind the curtain the real reason was that I had convinced myself that I would be the laughing stock amongst my friends, colleagues, and industry professionals. Not to mention my family.
It was then I had an epiphany! Yup. One o’those again. And what was it? All of those excuses were A BIG FAT LIE! At the heart of that large, exceedingly plump falsehood I created was the fact that… are ya sitting down? I WAS SCARED! TERRIFIED! OVERLOADED WITH ANXIETY! I had to admit to myself I didn’t want to get in front of a group of people I didn’t know and be vulnerable in a world I couldn’t control! Right then and there, what did I do? I made a decision, took action, and followed through! I went to my first meeting the very next night! Which, as Michael predicted - well, all I can say is, if ya have one of those, “DUCK!!!” It’s gonna take your head off! If if we make the decision and take action on it, the universe is with us in a big way. I mean seriously, whaty were the chances that there would be a meeting the very next day!
Plan #2 Tiamo De Vettori and I were contributing authors on a book which was released on June 20, 2023 and became an Amazon #1 Best Seller within a week, entitled The Collective Heart.
Get it on Amazon here.
Get it on Kindle here.
In getting to know Tiamo, as well as the other authors I found out about his
MusicPreneur Academy. Being a longtime musician this is something I really wanted to look into. On the evening of the same day I began Michael Bernoff’s workshop, I completed one of Tiamo’s ten week courses, called Part Time Musician, Full Time Income. My goal for this training is to get back into writing custom music and performing it for those who requested it. As it turns out dear friends to Mandee and me requested just a few months earlier for me to officiate at their wedding coming October 11, 2024 - and write a song for them to be played at their reception. As life would have it, I did. I received my pastoral ordination from American Marriage Ministries, as well as the Universal Life Church which led to the formation of a new business for me, McDade Marriages & Music. Do you know someone getting married and looking for an officiant with a custom wedding ceremony and a song written exclusively for the happy couple? Please send them my way.
Plan #3 - Speaking of music, for sometime my lifestyle was such that I had to relinquish my music to the back burner. The nudges for me to get back into music were starting to become a little more demanding. After making some headway with Tiamo, I felt the urge to audition for the worship music team at the church I was attending. The musicians there are phenomenal and accomplished artists and my heart was begging me to start playing again. Especially with this group. It had been nearly twenty-five years since I played with any group, and so I was a little tentative at first.
On January 28, 2024 I approached one of the team leaders and amazing vocalist, Rachael and she made arrangements for me to audition on February 25. Minutes later, Frank, the Worship Team Leader with whom I auditioned accepted me before I had even finished the audition. Wow! My first date to perform was March 17, 2024. Just a couple of weeks away.
The performance went great and here I am a year later still on the team! Lot’s of happiness, and abundant blessings thanks be to Jesus!
I was able to complete my goals for the first quarter of 2024 because I dug deep into my want-to-do list and dusted off some good stuff and made it work, thanks to some pretty amazing people behind the scenes. But it would have never happened if I hadn’t • made the decision,
• took action, and
• followed through.
2024 was off to a freaking awesome start! I had places to go, things to do, and people to see! Then train came to a stop on the evening of March 23, 2024 when I noticed blood coming from somewhere it shouldn’t. Just like that, the rest of the year went in a completely different direction. You might say the lights dimmed to about half house.
If you’ve been riding along please watch for my next installment:
EPIPHANY The Second Wave - Segment 4
RESULTS! The Fruits of Your Labor…
If you’re new here, you can get the lowdown on what this is all about by going here, where it all started.
Actually, it might even be time for a review of that first piece.