This song couldn’t be more appropriate right now. I succeeded the 50/90 challenge. That is to say I successfully wrote 50 songs in 90 days and I actually reached the target in 85 days. I finished the last song today. In fact the last two songs took about half an hour to come up with and record.

So now my family visit to rural, Southern Thailand (as shown in the picture) is set up nicely. I will not have to worry about whether I will be able to get that elusive last song written when I get back home on the last official day of the challenge. I can immerse myself in 3 days of real Thai culture. I feel so good about myself I can’t begin to put it into words.

This is a bit of a rush post too. I have been so caught up in completing the challenge and working hell-for-leather on recording my album I almost forgot to update The WSC! I am supposed to be in bed getting rested for a long drive early in the morning, but I just realized that I hadn’t posted this week’s song and if I missed doing that I would miss my first weekly deadline to date and that is just not acceptable. In fact soon or in the new year, I haven’t decided yet, I will be upping the ante at The WSC, but I won’t divulge all the details yet until I have a very clear mission statement of that. It seems only right to raise the bar after blowing all my goals and targets in the area of songwriting out of the water. I don’t think I have ever obliterated a target goal like this before. Thanks to the 50/90 challenge and all those involved. Now my profile page on the challenge proudly shows the word WINNER. I like that

The price of this small success of mine has been a temporary dip in health. I think I suffered some lack of sleep and I have an ear infection and feel very drained physically. Emotionally however I am really on fire and that reminds me to also thank my wife for her continuous support and belief in me. I love you teerak!

On a Roll
No "meaningful" message this week. I’ll spare you the lectures. I’m going to take this opportunity if I may to bask in my own glory and feel pleased with myself. Sorry I’ll be back to normal next week In the meantime get on a roll. It’s really easy to do. Don’t think about it, just get into something you really love and it will happen. Just make sure you get your sleep!

Quick thanks to a couple of folks, who have helped inspire me with ideas during the last three months.

Enjoy!

Wow has it been a week already? Well actually I am still finding it hard to believe it is almost a year since the birth of The Weekly Songcast. 2009 will see me taking more steps to introduce more people to my music and to make concrete my desire to make a living from it. I’m so close I can see it, smell it and feel it. It’s a good feeling.

It’s what brings me to this week’s song. I decided mid-week that I would now be publishing a complete, produced song every week in order to make 2009 different to the past year. 2008 was when I started writing complete songs and I gathered some staggering momentum and to date have written nearly 80 songs in less than a year, so 2009 has a lot to live up to. I am intent on taking myself to a level I have never got myself before.

Here’s the thing. It took me longer to complete the full-blown song than I thought. It is all recorded, but not mixed, so it will have to be next week that visitors will be treated to more Power-Poptastic energy from The Boy @ Heart. From next week the theme will be a finished song and worthy of official release. So far I seem to be naturally going in a rock/pop direction. I think it’s the vocal harmonies I love doing those. I will post about the direction the music is taking very soon on the Boy@Heart site

After a bit of a crossroads in my life (yes another one!) for the last few weeks I have allowed a little bit too much internal conversation get the better of my judgment and have been perpetuating the big taboo of worrying about what I am going to do and how I will be able to pay future bills, making it all seem like such an important problem and today after some intense recording work I remembered the reality, which is that I know what it is I should be doing, so I am going to continue with that come what may. I might still get foggy thinking about how I can promote my music online and how I can improve my networking skills. In fact the main thing is to put a band together and play. I was thinking a trio with all members singing. I like the sound of that.

Anyway what with thinking about my situation, regardless of the size of my bank balance, I realized that I am a bloody rich bloke! I am also extremely grateful for the wonderful things I have in my life and I feel like a right ungrateful so-and-so for forgetting that at times. I give permission for anyone to remind me of it too. So… I live in a beautiful place, I have the opportunity to do something I love to do everyday and I have a staggeringly fantastic wife and a very supportive family on the other side of the World looking out for me too. If I forget any of that then surely it must be hard to justify deserving it, so there it is…

I’m a rich man. I was from the start
I believe that if you are totally happy and grateful right now in the moment with the way things are then that is the only way that what you desire can possibly happen for you. Seeing as it is you who creates everything in your reality, it stands to reason that if you are not appreciative of what you have, your thoughts are on that which you don’t want and guess what you’re asking the universe for when your thoughts are like that? You got it! More of the same old S**T. Clean up your thinking. You’re a rich person too!

Enjoy!

Just the other night we went to one of our favourite restaurants on the beach and I captured a really breathtaking sunset. I love the fact that the sun goes down really quickly here. You can actually see it falling into the sea. The video is unedited and in real time. Please excuse the shaky hand and the sporadic movements

Unfortunately my internet connection has gone down (again) just at the time I was about to go away for a few days, so I had to abandon those plans and quickly find an internet cafe on my way to where I was going to publish this week’s song. I’ll put the video on Youtube when I get the chance.

I wanted to put the video to music and when I got home I thought how it fitted with this song. What I was filming was so much larger than myself and effortlessly successful in fulfilling its purpose without fail every day.

The whole universe is made of the same stuff… literally. Stars are made primarily of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Carbon. We are made of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Carbon. We are made of the same stuff that stars are made of. It stands to reason as far as I can see that we have the potential to just as effortlessly fulfill our own purpose in life instead of fighting against something all the time, which is usually something within ourselves anyway.

This is the first attempt as a video episode of The Weekly Songcast. I like it, not only because it is a reminder of how amazing this world isl, but because it was so quick to put together. A small example of what can be effortlessly created with some inspiration.

"If you give up the fight… You’ll be larger than life"
While that line may sound strange, it is the constant fighting that keeps us from being as big as we could be. Have you heard the phrase "What you resist persists"? This is because what you are fighting against or trying to stop, avoid etc… is where your focus is and focusing on what you don’t want makes you suffer. When you suffer or just plain feel bad, you are not fulfilled and therefore you diminish yourself. I declare that it is all our duties to be larger than life! How about it?

Enjoy!

‘Oh no. This is bad, so bad. What will become of me. I have failed!’ I said to myself this today when I realized what I had done… or rather not done.

HAHAHAHAHA! Actually I didn’t say any of those things. I’m over beating myself up for being me! I remembered this morning that I forgot to publish this weeks song by the deadline – Deadline is Sunday. As long as it is Sunday somewhere in the World it qualifies That’s the first time since I started the WSC. My initial thought was that because I had forgotten then I must be losing interest and that made me annoyed.

However after all of about 2 seconds I realized that it’s no big deal at all. I am working on a pretty intense (for me) project at the moment and I was caught up in that. It also shows me that sometimes the ball gets dropped, but no life is threatened and nothing is actually wrong.

I think its healthy to not always see things so black and white, which is why I chose this song for this weeks’ slightly belated offering. The point is that you only suffer if you have an attachment to the outcome of a situation. If your happiness or even your own sense of identity depends on things turning out a particular way then you may end up suffering unnecessarily.

Life is not a game of chess, no matter what people may say, so it matters not whether White or Black wins.

Enjoy!

A Lone Guitar Soundscape

This improvised instrumental was recorded for this year’s 50/90 challenge, late one night during an improvisation session that resulted in 6 songs featuring electric guitar.

I think I’ll be doing more soundscapes like this in the future because they’re fun, even if they are a bit self indulgent. I’m also going to get round to recording an album, inspired by Le Noise by Neil Young – Live, vocal plus electric guitar and lots of reverb and delay!

Enjoy!

If it’s all a Straight Line…

Where is the fun? This song is part of my FAWM 2010 experience, which I am really enjoying and finding particularly challenging.

I am starting to find my feet as a songwriter I believe. Although I think many of my earlier songs are better than many of my more recent ones I am still confident I am improving and that it is a sign of me moving into new creative territory .

This one song a fair chunk of ad-lib lyrics. I had the first verse written down and the chorus. Verse 2 is what came out on the first take. This year’s FAWM songwriting challenge is really getting me into a different area of creativity: Namely one that is seeing me create songs in a very short space of time and making me realize that if I just have faith that something will come out of my mouth worth keeping then it does.

Now I’ve got to practice that faith in my lyrical abilities becoming more diverse and versatile to different subject matter because I seem to be unable to write a song without philosophizing!

Not that I’m complaining though.

On a Serious Note this Week

Haha. Not much more to say really, except… Always check!

Very Simple and non-Subtle Inspiration

I wrote this song last night whilst under attack from some really painful acid indigestion. In a way I’m glad I had it because even though I felt as sick as a dog and in as much discomfort as I can tolerate, it gave me this song, which I quite like!

As with all WSC songs, this is a demo recording, but it makes a change from just the usual solo voice and acoustic guitar. The title is the only thing that was inspired by my condition last night. The song is more about the fact that often, when you achieve a goal, get what you always wanted etc. it isn’t the end and there is no "Now I can just put my feet up and stop trying". It’s the beginning, always.

With the achievement of something comes a responsibility and usually that means something new to take care of and then of course there is the added factor of realizing that getting what you wanted was only a part of the equation and it still feels like there is something left to achieve. Good ol’ life. You can’t ever say it is boring without actually being boring of course!

So life always need work to become perfect unless, of course, you accept that life was already perfect and it is you who needs working on!

Enjoy!

A Slow but Effective Start to 2010

As the title suggests I have been clearing out my head for the first month of this year. I spent most of it looking at what was really important to me in terms of what I do on a day-to-day basis. What I really want to do as my main vocation in life and what kinds of choices I would really love to have the freedom to make any time.

It was a month well spent. I am clearer. I have offloaded several goals and targets that I thought I really wanted to achieve last year, but didn’t, only to discover the reason I didn’t was because I didn’t truly desire them at all, so I have made space for some far more inspiring ideas and thoughts.

I am still doing a lot of clearing. I don’t think it ever really gets finished. Your thoughts, ideas and goals change often enough for it to be necessary to clear some clutter from the mind, so as not to get confused and fall into what I feel is one of the most common traps of all, which is: "I don’t know what it is that I want".

Ha! Nonsense. We always know deep down what it is and if you feel like you don’t then it’s time to pick up the hotline to your heart and listen out until you hear the answer from your subconscious because it is there all the time with the answer.

So this song really tells the story of a period from my 2009.

Enjoy!

To Be Crazy!

Yes I have been called crazy a few times in recent years. Not the zany, whacky, "cool" kind of crazy, but simply crazy.

Maybe I am, maybe I’m not, but if somebody has an explanation as to what it entails not to be crazy in any way whatsoever then I’d like to hear it.

If I’m crazy then crzy feels good. In the words of Mr T. "You Crazy Suckers!"

It’s never too late

To start all over again. It really isn’t. I have always believed this deep down, but the truth is that I have allowed my doubting voice to have too much say in the past and even fell for the illusion that once you reach a certain age then there isn’t much left you can hope to achieve.

Well I have seen enough evidence, up close to convince me that you can achieve your life-long ambitions even if you feel it’s too late. That’s it really. There isn’t much else to say except don’t believe the stories told to you by doubters or what you see on TV or in the newspapers. There’s more reality in your dreams than there is in the media, so which do you trust more?

It seems to me that the more you learn to really know yourself, trust yourself and be yourself the more success, fulfillment and happiness you experience. The more you know, trust and are able to be yourself then the more obstacles you will overcome because they will just seem like twists and turns and will provide some excitement and things to love along the way.

I mean if you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust? So just believe in the fact that while there is breath in your body then you are still in the game and you can still win, even if you have to start all over again!

Comment, add, follow, listen, download and Enjoy!

The Inner Game of Life

There is a general agreement in the world that the way the it works is that everything outside of you is so and you have to fit into it in some way. In other words, it is a belief that creates a state of being of reaction rather than creation.

You see things ‘out there’ and that determines your next move, which creates what you then see ‘out there’, which determines your next move ad infinitum.

This is of course the truth because it is generally agreed by the majority and as such creates a reality based on the predominant consciousness adopted by the population of the world, but it is not actuality.

What actually happens is that you create your moment first, often subconsciously and because it is subconscious the world appears to be the way it is because it just is and so your next moment of creation is influenced by that, again acted out habitually and subconsciously.

This is the reason why adopting a healthier attitude to life is what brings about a better quality of life. It is YOU who is the starting point for all you experience. That’s why you can take a dislike to somebody whilst other people love that person. It’s you doing the ‘disliking’, not them doing the ‘disliked’.

OK enough philosophizing. What it comes down to is that you have the power to create your life. Oh yes you do because you are already creating it! Once you commit to creating your life with awareness: I.e. deliberately and purposefully, you’ll see just how much easier it can be to experience life the way you want it to be more of the time.

It’s the same principle as the inner game of golf or tennis. What separates the very best players from the others is the strength of mind, attitude and focus. There are many tennis players with the same actual ability and skill as Roger Federrer for example, but he has the mental edge. However it’s not just about thinking. In fact it is not about thinking at all, even though it is largely to do with the mind.

Something to think about then! I’m still working on it myself.

Enjoy!

How Far We’ve Come!

Welcome back to the Weekly Songcast! It feels a little like it did back when it started from scratch. I was reminiscing about that the other day with a friend. When I decided to do the Weekly Songcast, it wasn’t called the Weekly Songcast. In fact it didn’t really have a name and the first few entries were done using iWeb on my Mac.

It seemed like a really easy and self-contained way of publishing a podcast at the time, but I soon went back to WordPress to enjoy the amazing flexibility it provides.

Anyway, back to Dec 30th 2007. I had decided to publish a new song every week and I promised myself that song number one would make it onto the website before New Year’s Day 2008. I got the site up and ready quickly enough, but the stumbling block was the first song. I had some chords (actually I had chords for loads of songs ready), but no words and I was due to visit my friend for New year on 30th; not coming back until after New Year’s Day.

The clock was ticking and I had to just get myself out of the way, so to speak. Song number one (Moment) ended up being published at about 18:30 (ish) hours on December 30th and I then raced to pack some stuff into my bag, ready for the 3 hour drive to my friend’s house in the really snazzy coupe hire car that I had been upgraded to for free (2007 was the year I got to drive nice, new cars for almost free due to being smashed into by a massive lorry in the summer).

I arrived at my friend’s house pretty late, but satisfied that I had actually honoured my intention and made my deadline. The Weekly Songcast name came later, around February with the switch to WordPress, but it was well and truly Alive (song #2). It was to be a defining moment in my history and helped me grow as a songwriter, musician and generally as a person.

It seems like a world away now as the title of the song in this post, although the ‘World Away’ referred to in this song is more about any undesirable feeling or situation being a world away once you get over them and progress with life. It’s a word of encouragement and support I suppose. There have been some moments like that for me in my life that now seem like a world away, which is another sign for me of the progress I have made.

All in all I am grateful for the Weekly Songcast. I love it and I should never have stopped it in August 2009. Still the reason I did stop it (to focus on something that wasn’t in my heart) provided me with some great lessons about myself and an increase in self awareness. It caused me to wake up some more to how I fit into this crazy game called life, which I love more and more as each day goes by.

The Weekly Songcast has helped form a significant chapter of my life. It has been with me as I put my plan to change my life situation into action, it inspired me to keep going and cheered me on as I moved to the other side of the world to live in a tropical paradise. It witnessed me marry the woman of my dreams and now it will get to share with me the joy of being there as my baby daughter Lilla grows up.

How long will the Weekly Songcast continue? WHo knows, but it is my intention that this is, again, just the beginning!

2009 was the quickest year of my life and I feel a little like I didn’t have time to get anything started, but as I look back at the year I can see that it was one of the biggest years of my life and contained the ultimate in joyous moments for me – Becoming a dad!

Thank you WSC and thank you life for keeping me in the game. I’m ready for more!

Is This the Last Ever WSC Song?

Err… Probably, at least in the way the WSC has been running for the last 20 months.

I am retiring the Weekly Songcast indefinitely with a feeling of great satisfaction. Not satisfaction that I am retiring it, but a sense of great achievement. It has served its purpose well, which was to get me on the path of being a songwriter and in that purpose it has been truly successful.

However with any other, the nature of that purpose evolves over time and the WSC hasn’t really changed since December 2007. I am saying thank you to it and to those who have passed by this site and I am announcing a new chapter in my music and web-related activities.

This website will remain here, so it can still be enjoyed and, who knows, it may even come to life again with a new twist (actually I have one or two ideas about that, but not top priority).

If you want to continue to follow any of my activity then the best place to do so is at the centre of it all at www.boyatheart.com.

I want to share the stories and insights successes I have had over the last few years as a way of inspiring other people to follow their passions in life and create the life of their dreams. What I have learned and discovered for myself has been fantastic. If you want some free advice on the spot right now then try this out:

There is nothing more powerful in your life than discovering more about who you are and making decisions based on pushing who you are into new areas. I guess this is where the Weekly Songcast is at right now. I am on a mission to combine what my passion for creating music and my desire to inspire others up the level of fulfillment and greatness in their lives.

Hop on over to www.boyatheart.com and follow me there, subscribe to my RSS feed and start asking yourself what it is in your life that really fires you up and gets you feeling like you’re really living.

Thanks again to everyone who has shown their support here. I’ve loved doing this and I’m looking forward to whatever comes next.

Enjoy!

Rob Cooke – Boy@Heart