Happy New Year!
2020 is behind us and January provides a well-needed fresh start and fresh resolutions.
Did you know that 80% of people give up on those new hopes and dreams by mid-February?
The worst part is that it’s usually not the first time those resolutions have been made and broken.
No, I’m not here to kill your vibe… 2020 did enough of that! I’m here to help you get what you want out of creating music.
Whether you make music as a hobby or you’ve got your eyes on a Grammy, read on and you’ll learn something that will help you get what you want.
Let’s start by shedding some light on the number one reason most New Year’s Resolutions fail…
They’re not specific enough and they’re not measured
Say the goal is “make more music”. The majority of people will keep that goal in mind and be happy about it for a day or two. Something else will then come up and it’ll slowly fade into insignificance.
The next time they’ll check in on that goal is, when?
Yep… you guessed it… around January 1st the next year!
What’s potentially worse about such a general goal is that if the person we’re talking about played their chosen instrument once in 2020 and then played it twice in 2021, they’ve actually achieved the goal to “make more music”.
Yikes!
Now, I know you or I would never make such a general goal (wink) but if we did, how could we course correct?
There are two simples steps.
- Make the goal specific
- Measure the goal to see how you’re doing
What if the “make more music” goal looked like this?
“Write, record, mix, produce, master and release 3 songs by March 31st 2021.”
Now, I’m not saying you need to pick that exact goal but being that specific will kick a lot of things into action. If you’re writing and recording, you’ll probably need to be playing and/or singing regularly. If you’re mixing your material yourself, you’ll need to know how to mix and so on… you catch my drift!
By focusing on a specific target, you’re expanding your skills across the board.
Then, instead of checking in once a year at the end of December, what if you checked in once a month? Well, I know you probably care even more than that because you’re reading this and you’re all about improvement, so maybe check in once a week.
Oh, look… you’re now 52 times more likely to achieve your goal 🙂
What if you checked in every day? Hmmm… well that means you’re 365 times more likely to achieve your goal over the course of the year!
It’s important to mention at this point that you can go overboard with this and drive yourself crazy.
Here’s the recipe for anxiety…
Set a goal to win a Grammy in 2022 with little to no professional music experience and check in on that goal every day.
If you were to set that goal and measure it, you’d be constantly asking yourself one of two questions…
“Have I won a Grammy yet?” No.
“Am I on track to winning a Grammy in 2022?” No.
Asking yourself those questions on a continual basis and getting such a negative response would probably make you feel a bit sad and want to just give up altogether.
That’s the problem with having huge, unrealistic goals. I’ve no problem with you having huge goals and unreasonable expectations for yourself but a certain amount of reality has to factor into it.
In the case of trying to win a Grammy, choosing that goal would place a lot of emphasis on things completely out of your control, which is only going to stress you out.
Creating audacious, unrealistic goals and putting a tight timeframe on them is the recipe for anxiety and greatly discourages people from doing anything productive.
I’ve set unrealistic goals in the past and I’ve suffered from the paralysis by analysis that comes with it. It’s about as much fun as chewing on a wasp, so don’t do it to yourself.
Please do keep dreaming and aspiring but be realistic in the short term.
In the long term, you’ll win if you get the short term work done.
Let’s revisit that goal from earlier…
“Write, record, mix, master, produce and release 3 songs by March 31st 2021.”
If you were to set that goal and measure it, you could regularly ask yourself some questions like…
“Have I written my songs for release on March 31st 2021?”
“Have I recorded my songs for release on March 31st 2021?”
If you got to the start of March and those two questions have “no” answers, then the likelihood of achieving the goal is slim. But if you set the goal and asked yourself those two questions early in January, you’d most likely get to where you need to go.
You could even strip it back to one song or even one verse and build from there. Break it down into the most manageable chunks you can.
Look, I know this isn’t “how to mix/produce” content but I feel this information is more important now than it ever has been.
Musicians are dreamers by nature and we have big visions for ourself and our musical skills. More often than not, it’s the execution part that fails us.
The goals we set for ourselves are not there to just achieve and move on.
It’s all about the journey – just like any great song.
The idea of setting goals is so that we can enjoy our lives and the people in them. It’s not just about completion and moving on.
If there’s anything to be learned from 2020, it’s that the journey matters much more than the destination.
With that said, I strongly encourage you to have a plan for your music in 2021 because it will help you avoid the stress of broken resolutions, encourage you to live an even more fulfilled life and have a lot of fun on the greatest journey of all!
Now, I’d love to know…
How do you feel about New Year’s Resolutions and goal setting? Do they help you make more music?
Leave a comment below!
professional sounding mix every time...
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