My Life Purpose Is Almost Floating By Itself

[Rigel]

I am at a point in terms of skill where I can charge up to 70$ an hour for one on one teaching & I work on stuff I love at least everyday. It’s becoming easier & easier to get clients too. I think I’ll be officially financially afloat from it exclusively in the coming year or two & it feels fantastic.

I don’t want to be bragging, I just felt grateful. I took the course almost a decade ago. I’ve been on the forum since 2018 & I bought the course before that for god’s sake!

Plow through the doubt & resistance fam, this work really does work.
And you, Leo, my good sir, are absolutely insane. I am only scratching the surface of your work.

 

 

[Leo Gura]

Nice!

What do you teach?

What is your LP?

[Rigel]

I don’t get how to tag you but thank you Leo!

[Rigel]

1 minute ago, Leo Gura said:

Nice!

What do you teach?

What is your LP?

Oh you saw!

 I teach music. You should’ve seen my face when I charged 50$ to one of my students & she pulled out 20$ on top to tip me the other day lol.

The formulation of my purpose has changed a lot throughout the years. So much so that I sort of gave up trying to formulate it. In one word I’d say inspiration but I’ve always felt dissatisfied with it. What I got from your course that really did it for me was the value assessment part. And it’s more than just the course too, it’s all your work really.

I don’t have the wits to explain myself like you do but it’s an understatement to say that you had the biggest impact in my life so far shy of my parents lol.

I love teaching & singing Elvis tunes with random folks & hearing “merci” with a glimmer in their eyes as I am leaving.😌

I hope my passion is seeping out of me & into them is the main thing I guess.

I have more ambition than this but it feels great to earn my survival in a way that doesn’t suck like so many other jobs I had.

[Rigel]

I am working on diversifying my operation at the moment. I would love to get more students as it has proven fun & lucrative but I can clearly see that gigging is where the most growth will happen. Therefore that’s where I need to go.

[ExploringReality]

@Rigel That's amazing brother 👏 

[Rigel]

17 minutes ago, ExploringReality said:

@Rigel That's amazing brother 👏 

Thanks mate!
I can foresee the second stage of this where I am not so crippled by money that I can think of the spiritual impact of my art & that kind of fluffy goodness. Not that I don’t already do but not earning money really do be crippling, mate.

[Rigel]

Here’s a few things I am struggling with if anyone has an input go ahead I will read & enjoy it.

I am bottle necked by the amount of students. There’s no doubt that I can teach & satisfy students enough for them to give me vast amounts of money(compared to my other jobs lol) but it’s only one hour a week per student & I don’t have enough to make it fully from teaching yet. Getting them is getting easier though. 

I am bottle necked by my mind always still. I am at a point with my playing where I will listen back to it & really like it. It sounds weird to say but I think I sound awesome. And still, I struggle to bring myself on stage. I have done it in the past but now it feels more serious. Which I know for a fact is incompatible with good playing. Good playing & serious don’t exist at the same time. I can feel my dirty mind getting in the way when I play a “serious performance “ like a live stream or actual show as opposed to singing to your mom(my mom) for example. No problem letting go & sounding great there.
It’s fear. That’s really all it is but it so damn sticky! God had to make it a challenge or what?

 

[ZenSwift]

5 hours ago, Rigel said:

Here’s a few things I am struggling with if anyone has an input go ahead I will read & enjoy it.

I am bottle necked by the amount of students. There’s no doubt that I can teach & satisfy students enough for them to give me vast amounts of money(compared to my other jobs lol) but it’s only one hour a week per student & I don’t have enough to make it fully from teaching yet. Getting them is getting easier though. 

I am bottle necked by my mind always still. I am at a point with my playing where I will listen back to it & really like it. It sounds weird to say but I think I sound awesome. And still, I struggle to bring myself on stage. I have done it in the past but now it feels more serious. Which I know for a fact is incompatible with good playing. Good playing & serious don’t exist at the same time. I can feel my dirty mind getting in the way when I play a “serious performance “ like a live stream or actual show as opposed to singing to your mom(my mom) for example. No problem letting go & sounding great there.
It’s fear. That’s really all it is but it so damn sticky! God had to make it a challenge or what?

 

Everything you could ever want is on the other side of fear. 

[Razard86]

So happy for you!!! Cheers!!! Empowered living is a beautiful thing.

[Leo Gura]

@Rigel Sweet!

[Aaron p]

@Rigel I'd be interested in hearing more about your progress bro, there's a decent chance I'm going to teach beginner piano at some stage. What instrument do you teach?

[Rigel]

1 hour ago, Aaron p said:

@Rigel I'd be interested in hearing more about your progress bro, there's a decent chance I'm going to teach beginner piano at some stage. What instrument do you teach?

Hey sure I can talk a bit more.

I have thought guitar & am teaching people of all ages from 5 to 73 years old. I also thought piano to mostly kids & some of my students, even though I market myself as a guitar teacher first, like for me to do voice training & ear training with them.

Here’s a few things I learned about teaching so far:

• Every students’ needs are different so I don’t have a set curriculum. I treat teaching like I treat jazz. It’s improvised using context & a few guidelines.
• The song is at the centre of it all because that’s what most people want to learn: Playing songs they like. The theory is tastefully sprinkled throughout for the sake of naming things for the most part. It’s to communicate instructions more effectively first. Unless the student really digs it.
• I always introduce new warm ups to have fun & loosen up. I call it tuning. The instrument & the mind. Breathing exercises specific to singing work great there but I also make them break out their shell by doing a bunch of silly noises.
• Humour is always a bonus. You are trying to make them have a good time before trying to turn them into Mozart.
• I always learn the song they are trying to learn. It might sound obvious but when you are leagues above them in skills you can get away with taking it one measure at a time & transcribing live in front of them or reading it. I don’t like that. I like to memorize the music front & back, the form, lyrics, everything. I might even play it in a few different keys for fun if it’s a simple song. I learn it way faster than them of course so some hours of learning for me is weeks of not having to prepare material cause you now have an ocean in your pocket & they can only handle a small glass of water at a time.

I could think of more stuff and maybe will later, cheers!

[integration journey]

Please learn the oud instrument so I can buy lessons from you haha

I grew up in the Middle East so the oud instrument is very special for me. It’s a little bit similar to a guitar. 

[Natasha Tori Maru]

This is fantastic! I think you are reaching a breakpoint in your career. 

I struggled in mine for 3 years, then it just... Clicked. It became effortless.

In terms of performance anxiety, I have some strange methods. I realised early on it's all in my head. You are right that it is YOU getting in your own way.

I have to meet up with clients regularly - heads of large medical centres, project managers for the big $5mill + jobs, the health minister etc. I used to get nervous - it was rooted in 'imposter syndrome'. I didn't think I deserved or earned the place. I reprogrammed my own mindset: I just view these people now as some human, just like me, that has no idea what they are doing and making it work. They don't actually have any authority over me, they are just there performing some behaviours because they want money. They still shit, piss and have demented pathologies just like us all. 

When this clicked I suddenly stopped caring. I stopped trying to conduct myself to fit in and decided I would turn up looking how I wanted, speak how I wanted and never hesitate to pass on bad news. If someone has an emotional reaction or blames me for passing on news they don't like it's totally on them. They shouldn't be mismanaging their emotions. There are no emotions with business, but people inject them in and justify their anger regardless. No need. I just focus on the solution immediately. I divert all energy to the solution. 

That's what you are doing with performance - you are finding a creative solution to something. Only, your solution is pure art, creativity. Delivering joy. That focus on delivering joy to others is essential. 

You are helping others experience the music. You are pulling them into a state of being. Bringing them closer to an elevated state. 

Perhaps if you shift your focus to this solution, you won't worry about the performing part. This happened to me 😊

But don't underestimate exposure therapy - I got better by doing and repeating. It helps I have done dance performance in front of audiences. Spoken in front of large rooms of people and hosted these talks. All these skills overlapped to inoculate me against nervousness speaking to high level government employees.

I do wonder if you could do something to expose yourself - busking perhaps? Much less pressure and you can engage in a flow state 

[Rigel]

@Natasha Tori Maru Thank you for your valuable perspective. I will mull it over for a little while now. I can definitely validate the exposure therapy part for other aspects of my life. It only makes sense but sometimes the human is stubborn lol. I’ll get to sending emails! Oh what a joy unraveling all that shit is!

[Rigel]

1 hour ago, integration journey said:

Please learn the oud instrument so I can buy lessons from you haha

I grew up in the Middle East so the oud instrument is very special for me. It’s a little bit similar to a guitar. 

I’ll add it to the list next to harmonica. I have a pipeline. Probably won’t ever get to the end of it.😜

[Rigel]

On 2025-07-24 at 2:52 AM, ZenSwift said:

Everything you could ever want is on the other side of fear. 

I’ll get my strength up & jump it, mate.

Thanks @Razard86! I am grazing it with the tips of my fingers

[ZenSwift]

@Rigel you dropped this:  👑