India. It’s gorgeous. It’s chaos. It’s amazing. It’s everything you’ve heard that it is.

The last time I was there was in the summer of 2004…yes, it’s been a while. It’s tough to get back when there’s a young family to consider because it’s a lot of travel and you have to stay for at least two weeks, which is difficult to manage. We’re going to try to make something work for next summer so stay tuned.

My trip in 2004 was my second time there and my first time since I was really little…so I didn’t remember much. My dad visited somewhat regularly and kept telling me about the street traffic. Words didn’t do it justice so he was excited that I was going to see it in person, insisting that I always sit in the front seat when we were being driven around.

Ummm…What. The. Hell.

Chaos. For the first few days of our trip, I was seriously covering my eyes with my hands when we were on the road. Ever seen a toddler play one of those car driving video games? Yep. Pretty much like that.

The ratio of painted lanes on the road to actual lanes of cars in traffic was always 1:2. 3 lanes on the road? Cool story bro, because there’s 6 lanes of vehicles. No big deal. I finally asked our driver about the lanes because what in the actual hell?

“Oh yeah, the lanes. They’re just suggestions. It’s not like a law or anything. Just suggestions.”

I chuckled until I noticed that he wasn’t chuckling back and then I realized that he wasn’t joking. I continued to white-knuckle grab anything I could find.

For real, driving in India is like a 5-ring circus broke loose and no one…and I mean NO ONE…even realizes it. There’s 3-wheeled taxi cart things whizzing by and through everything, trucks, buses, cars, wagons, motorcycles, and bikes. Everywhere. And that’s just vehicles. That’s not even to mention the people (so_many_people) and the animals. There’s donkeys, monkeys, chickens, camels, horses, and of course cows. Everywhere. Not in a zoo…everywhere.

Family of four on a single scooter? Yep. Chaos.

Large cow feels like laying down in the middle of the street? Yep. Chaos.

Cows, as you might know, are sacred in India, so when they sit…they stay, and everything goes around. There’s no trying to move it out of the way.

None of this is convenient…

…but all of it is awesome. It’s awesome because no native street-goer sees this as chaos at all. It’s how it is. It’s their totally and completely normal. Of all the crazy stuff, that’s the craziest thing.

What’s chaos to you might not be to others because it’s all relative. When chaos becomes the norm, you’re eventually forced to become hyper aware of your surroundings to the point of where it’s not so chaotic anymore. It took me a few days, but I eventually wasn’t freaked out anymore because I knew my driver saw everything — that scooter in our blind spot, that truck about to merge, and that pedestrian at the next intersection that was going to let him go first.

Chaos can feel like it becomes less chaotic, but that’s not really the case. It’s your perception that has evolved. This is true with business — and well, — with life, too. Crazy and new can make you feel alive, but it’ll eventually just be normal and standard. That doesn’t at all mean to imply that “normal and standard” is bad, but it just means that noticing that change in your perception is noticing and acknowledging growth in yourself.

After a few years of working to build a music lifestyle brand from scratch, certain chaotic things have become a little more normal. I’ve found that the chaos itself doesn’t let up, but how I’m able to receive, prioritize, and handle it has matured over time.

With this awareness comes the capability to see change, accept change, and then look forward to see what’s next. Business, life, marriage, parenthood…whatever you got…seeing what’s next before it’s here is an ability we can all use. Give yourself time…

Until then, embrace the chaos and know that it won’t feel like that for long.

#bewhatyoumake