Oh boy... In the past weeks, I was very close to downtime. Some things happened in my life and I momentarily slowed down everything. This is not the first time it happened and it won't be the last time. Circles of life... I'm human after all 🙂
However, being close to downtime and having downtime are two completely different things. If you make a full stop, getting back on track is so much harder. But if you just shift down a gear you can continue doing what you want to do without risking to waste hours, days, months, or even years of your life.
To avoid falling into a deep hole and stop entirely (even just for a moment), I personally revisit my goals and ask myself two clear and very important gut-check questions. They help me regain clarity and focus.
- Are you willing to do what it takes?
- Are you willing to wait as long as it takes?
If you're not where you wanna be right now, sit down in the next 48 hours and ask yourself these questions. It really helps 🙂
Be utmost honest though. Do not fool around with this life-changing stuff. As soon as you know where you want to be, you can focus on achieving the few right goals that can actually get you there.
Oh, and for the sake of your music career, do not confuse "wait" with "idle". "Wait" simply means that you cannot expect instant gratification for your actions. Maybe the live streams you started a few months back aren't going well yet. But six months from now, they might go through the roof if you stay consistent with it and listen to the feedback. Or that EP you produced in 2017 can be worth a lot to your fans with consistent and well-made email marketing or advertising. Or the outreaching to music supervisors to get your music into movies finally pays off after twelve months.
Building a profitable music career is hard. Very hard. But it's not impossible at all. I even think it has never been easier than today. Every day, new musicians get discovered and somehow they manage to grow their music business.
Over-saturation? No, thanks.
Be innovative, authentic, and focused.
I'd love to hear from you... Are you willing to do what it takes to turn your vision of your future self into a profitable music career? And most importantly, will you be consistent as long as it takes?