I am always looking for new motivators and new ways to spread the word on my music, so I joined the Ariel Promotions blog challenge. It’s a good motivator because when I am in between touring and writing an album, I feel like: who gives a crap about what I’m doing? I just need to get over that, so here I am. I’ll be blogging at least once a week as I read and follow Ariel Hyatt’s book Music Success in 9 Weeks. I’ve read the first few chapters a while ago, and I like to jump ahead of things, but this time I’m trying something different.
I’m going to restrain myself and actually do the exercises week by week. Hmm, imagine that. But really, it’s a difficult thing, being the impatient person I am.
One of the exercises for the first week was to make out goals, and actually put steps and time lines. I’m reallllly good at making goals. I actually even accomplish some. 
But on a day to day basis, my Pisces nature of procrastination and lack of focus at times can get the better of me. This is a perfect time though, because it’s coming up on the Pagan New Year (Halloween), and I always set my new goals and reevaluate life and career on or before October 31. Is this the Universe speaking or what?
So as I looked at the parameters for the goal setting in this lesson; Lifetime goals, financial goals, goals for your household (family), I was kinda stuck. I am so used to setting weekly, monthly and yearly goals and yes, bigger picture goals (making an album), I think part of my lack of focus is by not setting or even thinking about longer term goals. Hmmm. The next part of the exercise was to write down 5 small successes each day. This is where I lack big time…typically, I tick things off my list, and I don’t look back. I move on without ever thinking about all the things I have accomplished…hell, it’s easier to dwell on what I haven’t accomplished, right?But really, it serves no purpose. We all need to give ourselves a pat on the back once in a while, and not feel like we (I’m) are being arrogant by doing that.
My partner races mountain bikes; not for a living, it’s his passion. He trains hard and he’s a very talented rider. He’s strong and he’s fast. He wins, too. He’s very humble, yet at the same time very confident in his skills, and knows that preparation plays a big part of it…but he also knows that come race day, anything can happen….(no different than musicians) technical things like a flat tire or broken chain, a crash, or you’re not hydrated, or you’re sick, or someone is just faster than you. Once the race is done, you look at the results and then congratulate yourself for a job well done…you finished, you actually started and competed. That’s the bonus. It’s small, but it’s a success. Not everyone is willing to commit to hard work of training for a bike season, but what I mostly see, is not many are willing to put themselves out there and risk losing (you should hear the excuses). We as musicians do this every time we step on a stage. Not everyone can do that; if it was easy, everyone would do it, right? But we have to acknowledge ourselves for having the courage to do it, and if we have a brilliant show, we need to acknowledge that, and if we have a crappy show, we need to acknowledge first of all, that we even showed up, and second of all, we hung in and made it through. Few are willing to do that…especially on a consistent basis.
I recently did a show that I felt was a complete disaster. It wasn’t, but my perception was that it was. After getting over myself, I realized I could let it scare me for my next show, or I could use it to improve what I thought the disaster was. I decided to look at the small successes. 1) I showed up. 2)I finished the show.
I guess my point is, writing down 5 small successes every day…even if it’s doing the laundry (hell, I could let it just sit there until I was forced to go naked), and by acknowledging the small successes, it becomes a lot easier to look at our larger ones and say, hey… yeah… I did that. How cool is that?
