Thoughtful Thursday: Finding My Voice for a New Audience

I am currently involved in a new project - a collaborative project that takes me a bit out of my comfort zone. I am currently struggling a bit with how to proceed in this new project, and I think it's because I don't really know how to talk in this situation.

(Do you hear that?? THAT sound is my father laughing and laughing about the statement, "I don't really know how to talk..." For some reason, he thinks that all I do is talk and talk and talk... Silly Dad!)

Now, Dad is right in some respect, I can talk your ear off if you ask me what I do for a living. I can speak the intellectual disability and childhood psychiatric music therapy talk all day long. If you have a general question about music therapy, I'm your best source! This is a language I have been speaking for almost 3 decades (including my schooling), so I know that talk.

The problem here seems to be that I am not really sure how to talk about this new idea. The target audience is completely different from my comfortable position, and I am stressed out about it.

Have you ever had that problem? I'm being asked to collaborate on something that stretches my comfort zone, and I am struggling to find my voice.

I'm not sure where to even start. I've tried to write - several times - and each time, I feel that my contributions are a bit false. I don't feel like I should go full-out Masters in Music Therapy for this project, but I also can't be "one of the group" on this project - I don't have the same experiences as the target audience. 

When I find myself in this situation (which doesn't really seem to happen all that often, thank all that is good!), I go back to the beginning. In this case, the beginning is my knowledge of human development and the effect of music on the developing human being. I have the resources, so it's time to delve into the reading and writing and assimilation of material into something that makes sense to me. I know I can do this - I've done it before - but it takes time and effort, and brain cells.

I am stepping out of my comfort zone, and it is terrifying me!

My rational brain tells me that this expansion of my audience and thought and direction is a very good thing for me. It tells me that I can do this. It also lets me know that my contributions to this project are valuable. My emotional brain, however, is just running around the room in panic mode!

To help out that rational brain, I am reverting to my tried and true process for calming that emotional brain and getting back into my logical reasoning - my to-do list! In this case, this is an outline of what I want to say and how I want to say it.

Hmmm. I've never thought of my outlines as to-do lists before, but they really are the same thing, aren't they? Interesting perspective for me... Sorry, that was a tangent from the current topic.

Back to the current topic now...

I will continue to write and rewrite until I have found the voice that I want to portray to others. It will be an authentic voice after all that work. I hope my audience feels that as well.

Happy Thursday, all!