Just Do It: 2015

Often, I will hear an advertising slogan that I like or that I think is clever, but it is rare that one of them carries what I see as a really important philosophy. Years ago, however, when Nike started using "Just Do It," I was impressed. I always saw that as: "Don't make excuses or equivocate about why you can't -- just do it."

I like that. Just do it. It's both assertive and gentle -- can be seen either way. And you know an ad slogan is good if it can be shifted to fit the times. I've begun seeing it in a different light.

Rocky, with no one watching, no trainer, no fans, pre run. 

I feel like usuing the phrase with people I see on social media who set up accounts to show the world their fitness progress or their weight-loss achievements. People often do this to make themselves "accountable" by putting their struggle in the public eye. I don't mean to lambaste them, but only to point out the possibility that (big surprise, here, coming from me) looking inward might be better than looking outward, here.

A lot of it depends on knowing one's self, of course. If one is driven exclusively or most strongly by what others think of them, it just might work. But, for the rest of us, maybe we should "just do it" and not talk about it and not advertise it and not depend on the people around us for motivation. Maybe we would change the slogan: "Just Do It And Keep It To Yourself."

The Pot of Old Socks at the End of the Rainbow

Artistic fulfillment. So stinking elusive. You just have to fall back on the old cliche: the fulfillment just has to come from the doing; not the having done; not the accolades.

My band played on Saturday night to a pretty packed room. The place is biggish, too. Usually, we get a lot of positive feedback -- people dancing and singing along; a lot of smiles; a lot of high-fives when we come out with a song someone is surprised we are playing. We're usually pretty good at picking them, especially in that particular room.

Not last night. Last night, with the exception of a few moments, we might as well have been playing to a room full of cacti. It was like serving tennis balls into a hanging blanket. So what did we do? We played. We decided just to have fun. We sort of did, but, it was one of those nights you look forward to wrapping up.

Great American songwriter, Jimmy Webb -- who "gets it."

With my own original music, I find that, with Internet radio play -- Spotify, Radio Airplay, etc. -- that people are responding very favorably. Hundreds are people are bothering to become "fans" of my songs, from New York to Great Britain to Singapore and Japan.