WHO YOU COMPETING WITH?
If you want to change the world with your music, it’s not going to be done just by being great – people also need to recognize your creative spark and individual personality. By approaching your music in a unique and thoughtful way, you don’t even have to be an amazing artist. You can see examples like this all over the music industry. Besides originality, a few key personality traits are needed. It’s easy to get lost in the monotony of life, but if your career isn’t going where you want it to, think about something:
Are you sitting at home looking at all the other artists?
Some people who play it safe think that in order to make it big, you need to be skilled, rich, or lucky. A little bit of that will help, but more than anything, you need to be prepared to pay the price. No success comes without sacrifice. The big gig isn’t going to fall in your lap, you have to get out your comfort zone. You have to become a student of the game and get comfortable being uncomfortable.
You know that feeling that you might lose everything when taking a risk? It’s a scary feeling, yes, but bad, no. In the end, it will be persistence that defines you, not luck or money.
Once you finally have the courage to risk it all and leave your comfort zone, you need to set goals and live on purpose. it’s crucial to differentiate yourself from the pack. As unique as you are, let that uniqueness be your foundation. There will be plenty of musicians of equal talent and dedication to compete with. To stand out, many believe they should practice longer and harder. This will help, but you only have so much time and energy. By not managing your time effectively, you’ll burn yourself out. The truth is, if you are yourself their is a space only you can fill.
Your only competing with yourself at the end of the day.
When you learn to compete with yourself, you don’t have to stress due to the success of others. You know yours is in the post, coming to you at the right pace, at the right time, when you put the work in. Why focus on what you don’t have when you can put your focus in what you do have and build on your accomplishments, and use that as a springboard to make yourself more successful — not just follow the footsteps of others but you chart your unique course.
When you compete with everyone else, you’re only competing in arenas that belong to other artists that have not been set up for you. Winning in those arenas are an illusion. Only when you use yourself as a measure for your success do you open the infinite opportunity’s before you. You could improve on and pursue, the infinite opportunity’s that your unique self creates. This strategy might ultimately make you more at peace than following what others are doing. Then you can determine what success looks like and how you can achieve it. You remove yourself from the burden of others expectations and you free yourself from the opinions of the critic and weaken the impact of trolls.
The holy grail is the pursuit of your future self. It takes vision, your dream future. You let go of your past self, past failures, past mistakes and reach forward towards your potential. There are no limits to a dream, so dream big and do all you can to realise it. Our internal competitor is what drives us to become the best we can be. To try and become better at something than everyone before us, to experience being our best selves in that moment. This is what drives people to discover new things, and build the most sophisticated things possible. Our tendency to compete may be a natural development of or competitive instincts that adds value to our endeavours. Healthy levels of competition can help improve self-esteem and increase enjoyment of life. It can also motivate us to work harder toward our goals.
Basil Reynolds
Coaching Consultant
Finding the Music Inside