Finding Your Groove

Discovering one’s own personal groove in life is a lot like a needle dropping onto a vinyl record as it spins on a turntable. As it gently touches dead center in that little crevice, a beautiful sound emerges and continues to delight as the needle goes round and around.

Some seem to be born in the groove. One of my childhood friends announced by second grade that he was going to be a physician. By high school, he had picked a specialty and graduated early to begin pursuing his goal. Others are persistent in forging a pathway to theirs, such as my friend who went year after year to cheerleading tryouts, finally making the squad in high school. And then there are those, like me, who are handed a work assignment that seems far from their comfort zone, but they give it their best shot and, by golly, there it is!

By definition, a groove  (in this case) is a situation or an activity that one enjoys or to which one is especially well suited. It is a skill that comes easily. It simply fits and feels right.

I was working at WSAV TV in Savannah in the mid-1980s, learning the ropes of TV journalism when I received an assignment to write and produce a 30-minute program to introduce Savannahians to the concept of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs).  That’s how I discovered that the long-form format is a good fit for me. Writing and producing Healthcare: Your Money or Your Life was a challenging experience, but I found I could envision the project from beginning to end. The script and timing worked from concept to completion and the production turned out better than anyone expected, including me. I had found my groove.

There’s something wonderful, perhaps awesome, about unexpectedly discovering your groove. You find yourself being able to do something that you never thought about doing. It is like looking into an abyss and without being able to explain it, objectives come into focus and outcomes become clear and accomplishable.

I have often wondered if I would grow weary of my groove, if it would turn into a rut.  When I started producing a steady stream of long-form programs as the original Cable Access Coordinator for the City of Savannah, tackling topics from Savannah’s history to drainage issues to preparing for St. Patrick’s Day and hurricanes, I still found the projects engaging and rewarding. After relocating to Atlanta in 1998, I wrote for two syndicated television series: Jim Fowler’s Life in the Wild, and Life in the Wild with Jason Raise. This experience was stressful to the brink of burn-out, but I was able get back into the groove once again and began producing corporate and industrial videos. Some of my favorite projects have come along in recent years, such as the Gumshoe series I developed for the American Fence Association’s national conventions. I find it gratifying that new ideas and scripts still spring forth. It’s just as exciting as ever.

In today’s web-based digital world, it’s fun to evolve and discover new ways to deliver the long-form experience to the short-attention-spanned viewers who demand more control of their video experience. Now, a lengthy video is more often chaptered into a series of short vignettes embedded throughout a website or interactive app.  No matter the format, creating videos still sounds like to beautiful music to my ears. I suppose that’s the magic of the groove.