Why Upgrade was born

There was a time in my life that I felt trapped in my career, I had a very poor relationship with food and was only concerned about immediate gratification. I started to develop negative patterns like staying up all hours of the night trying to avoid the next day.

Eventually these negative rituals caught up with me. I was driving home from the job that I knew I was getting let go from and I fell asleep at the wheel. I hit the car in front of me on the highway. Time dilated as I watch the car flip upside down.

Thank god everyone was ok. The reason I tell you this is because this was the wake up call. Something had to change. 

One day I met up with an old college professor who gave me something that I desperately needed. Validation. Validation that I was good enough.

In particular as a musician. He encouraged me that I had the chops to get accepted to the Royal Liege Conservatory in Belgium. I literally felt such a physical shift in my body after finally feeling like I had direction. So after auditioning and a few short months of prepping, I packed up my bags (and my euphonium) and headed off to Europe. Little did I know this started the second part of my Upgrade.

I spent a year, alone in a French speaking country, studying classical music and practicing for 7 hours a day. What naturally started occurring was a complete transformation. I started working out, my diet naturally got better from a European diet and I became crystal clear on what I wanted. The learned to tune out the noise of the French speak public and went into an almost permanent meditative state!

What came from this year abroad was not necessarily a career in music…but an understanding that I was in complete control of my life. The only thing that mattered in my progress as a musician and a human being was what I chose to do on a consistent, daily basis. The system of designing this ideal day was refined over the last decade into what is now a teachable plan of action.