I’ve just finished reading a couple of autobiographies of musicians and was struck by some of the choices they made and the impact that had on their lives.
The two books were by Ginger Baker and Waylon Jennings. Strange bedfellows at the best of times a rock drummer and an “outlaw” country singer. But in many ways both had dependency problems and were know to take legal and illegal substances.
After finishing Ginger’s book I felt strangely depressed. It looked like he had made many poor choices throughout his life and suffered the consequences. Whether he would agree or not I don’t know, but there was a sadness for me about the positive impact he could have made but just fell short every time.
This led me to think about the choices I’ve made and not made and how life could/would be different if I’d taken some different paths. Overall I’m happy with where I am and what I’ve achieved and whilst I went through a “what if …” phase a few years ago I reconciled that with the fact that I’m in a relatively good place personally (professionally I might be just leaving a good place through no choice of my own – but time will tell).
I’m a great believer in the fact that you make your decision and live with the consequences rather than whinge and moan about what could have been. It’s in our own grasp to make things happen so take ownership and do something constructive with our life rather than be at the mercy of other people’s whims!
