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Metal For Life Blog

~ The official blog of Metal Mike. I'm a heavy metal musician most commonly known as a long standing guitarist to Judas Priest frontman, Rob Halford. I'm a highly sought after heavy metal guitar and music coach. I am also a solo artist, an entrepreneur, a business owner, an avid car nut and a closet extrovert. I believe Heavy Metal should be lived loud & proud and it has been a highly motivating source in my life. I'm here to share my thoughts, pass on lessons learned and sometimes chew on big subjects. If you enjoy the content of Metal For Life, I only ask you to share my blog with one more person. Thank you & welcome.

Metal For Life Blog

Monthly Archives: October 2022

Give Advice To Yourself As If You Were Giving It To Your Best Friend

30 Sunday Oct 2022

Posted by Metal Mike in Uncategorized

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You know what’s funny about us humans? We love to give our best advice to others, but we often think we don’t know what to do for ourselves. But, here’s the thing – we usually do know what to do. You know what you’re doing right, what you need to change or where you’re slacking. Generally, if we get quiet, we can figure that stuff out if we are being honest with ourselves.

Here’s the deal – sometimes you gotta talk to yourself, your own voice might be the most intelligent thing you hear all day. What would you tell your best friend who was facing the same challenge as you are? Ok, great. Now, go follow that advice.

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Outlast The Temporary

30 Sunday Oct 2022

Posted by Metal Mike in Uncategorized

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Sometimes when things don’t go our way, or we have to do something we don’t want to do, it might seem to us, that we are forever doomed. It’s a loss of perspective. When we are stuck in traffic – it feels like it’ll never end. When we have to learn a new skill – it feels like it’ll take a lifetime. When we get a flat tire – it can feel like we’ll never get back on that road again. We know it’s not true, but our mind exaggerates.

I always remind myself that the success is in outlasting the challenge. Most everything we know has an end. All we have to do is to remind ourselves to outlast the temporary thorn and then all will be ok on the other side.

See if that small shift in mindset can work for you!

Are You Ever Too Old To Learn An Instrument?

17 Monday Oct 2022

Posted by Metal Mike in Guitar & Music, Inspiration & Motivation

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Here is your answer – No. You’re never too old to learn anything, including a guitar. Applying yourself to learn an instrument has nothing to do with your age, but rather with how much time you have (or, rather allow) to practice. Not everyone will be Eddie Van Halen, but with proper instruction and time put in you can get playing.

Your boss at work, or your customers don’t care if you play the guitar, golf or like to fish. As an adult life brings more challenges, people feel they can’t really commit to playing. 20 minutes every 3rd day is not going to do it, even if you had the talent of Eddie. I have seen some of my younger students get incredibly good at a guitar in rather short period of time. Their advantage was having the focus and time to sit at the guitar and play it for 5 hours plus a day.

I started to play the guitar late, I think at 15-16. Most of my friends were much better than me. Ok, all of my friends were better than me. But, I have put an immense amount of practice during my High School years (Read: no time at the beach, no hanging out, no parties) and most of them were not even in the running by the beginning of my Junior year.

I also mentioned this before, but I never met anyone whose fingers were too short, too long, too stubby to play the guitar. That excuse does not exist.

So, how much time do you need to get some decent playing in? If you can dedicate honest 30-45 minutes 6 days a week, you would have made a great progress in 3 months. This will be enough to play several songs, melodies and most likely even write your own stuff. If playing an instrument is important to you, often times you have to give up on other things to find the time. For adults, it’s a game of priorities and time management and figuring out what’s important.

I also believe that we should all carve out at least 1 hour every day to do the stuff we love to do. It’s necessary. Otherwise, life becomes a boring box you live it.

Write Tasks Down

17 Monday Oct 2022

Posted by Metal Mike in Inspiration & Motivation

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You know that feeling where you have so much going on that you don’t know where to put your hands first? Yeah, we all do.

I find it very useful to get stuff out of my head and onto a paper. Want to get some things done over the weekend? Write them out on Friday. For whatever reason, when we see things written down, our brains assume them important and less breakable. This just steers your mind into a direction we need. In an odd way, you don’t even need to go over your “list” over the weekend, just the process of writing things you want to do makes them so much more probable to get done.

Side note about stuff “written in”. Did you ever buy a car and a dealer takes out the purchase agreement and you see a “Document and Paperwork Fee” already printed onto the document? This happens for a reason. Buyers are less likely to argue something that is already in print. Dealer fee is a way for the company to pay for the clerks in the back that are an expense for them. Clerks do not sell, but someone has to file stuff, so you guessed it – you are asked to pay for it. This is also one of the reasons why contractors like to give you quotes in writing and not verbally – you’re less likely to negotiate. That is, if you are not privy to the info above.

Write it down.

Your Heroes Don’t Have All The Answers

05 Wednesday Oct 2022

Posted by Metal Mike in Uncategorized

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They don’t. While the people we look-up to, or even idolize, might have found a way to become admirable at a task be it sports, music, photography, engineering, design, teaching, sales and so on, remember that in order to become exceptionally world-class good at something, we often in the process give up on developing other important parts of life. This varies of course from person to person. The people you admire don’t always have all the answers. This is why I sometimes find it interesting that general public expects sports stars, as an example, to be all around role models. Many genuinely are, and for a good reason. But, careful with your expectations. It takes a certain personality to give up literally everything in order to achieve a task that most only dream of. I’ve met several successful people in their various chosen professions who couldn’t inflate a tire or hold a half-decent conversation. I am not not faulting you, me or anyone else – we are all work in progress. Just take above into consideration.

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