Intro
I'm on my journey to learn how to play an electric guitar (as well as some music theory) as a long time acoustic guitar player.
At some point I got particularly interested in soloing. Watched some videos/read some articles. As I progressed I noticed how some principles of good soloing and music composition can also be applied to life.
Here are some of those.
Principles
It’s important to have pauses
Silence is part of the solo. Pauses reinforce the point, give time for the feeling to settle in. If you don't have pauses, it becomes rushed, messy and overwhelming.
You need to have a theme(s)
Don't just play random unrelated notes, everything should be interconnected, part of the same idea.
Apply some repetition
If you don’t come back to an idea, it won't stick. Repetition reinforces the idea.
Play along the rhythm
Understand the rhythm and play along, be attuned to the environment/context. Otherwise there will be a dissonance.
Zoom out
Think about the big picture, and not just individual events. Even a slightly wrong note can give it a new flavor so don’t overanalyze it.
Don't force it
Don’t force and/or over-plan it, sometimes your actions have to be spontaneous and visceral.
Outro
There you have it. I'm sure there are tons of other concepts that may be integrated. I'm exploring them as they come.
May you have a lot of smooth-jazz episodes.