What’s Keeping You From Winning?
Welcome to the last couple of weeks of 2023! We made it! I hope it was a great year for you and yours and I hope that you’re looking forward to the hopes and dreams of a fresh year and a fresh start.
“2024 is a mindset, not just a calendar shift… remember that.” - Joseph Awuah-Darko
I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty nostalgic and the holidays just exacerbate that trait in me. I love to think back about the past and remember moments, songs, and traditions that bring me joy. My love for nostalgia has also created a habit in me to make sure that as seasons or years end that I look back and take stock of things.
I love to look back and evaluate what the wins were this year and some areas that I need to grow in as well. In light of what I find, I set goals and rhythms for the new year that will hopefully lead me where I hope to go and help me to grow in the process.
As a creative coach I go through this process with all of my clients to some degree as the year ends so I’ve been on a lot of calls this month helping creative people evaluate, be grateful, be honest, and set a trajectory for the new year.
In those conversations I found some common threads as to why some didn’t reach the goals they set in 2023 and it helped me create a little frame work that could help us all in 2024 so I wanted to share it with you.
I want to talk about 4 things that can keep you from reaching your goals.
ABILITY
Maybe you literally just don’t have the ability to do the things that you want to do. Your talent and capability just aren’t at the level that you need them to be to reach the goals that you have set for yourself.
Good news… that’s ok.
Last year I started working in tv/film music and the work that I signed on to do required me to not only write and produce my own tracks, but also to mix and master them. I have experience in all of these things, but it had been years since I had mixed and mastered my work myself.
So I did a few key things.
I sent every mix I did to a few friends that would give me honest feedback and I took stock of the things they said. I made myself accountable to their feedback and let it make me better.
I also took an online course on mixing and I’m now taking one on mastering. Don’t have too much pride to get educated in something.
Lastly, I set a goal to make sure that every mix I did was better than the last one. So I set some parameters to practically measure each mix against the last. How tight is the low end? How balanced is the EQ? How loud is it? How dynamic is it? Things like that…
As I kept creating and mixing, the feedback I was receiving was congruent with what I thought about my mixes. They were getting better. I finished my last piece of music of the year for tv/film a couple of weeks ago and one of my friends told me that I should be extremely proud of how much I improved this year. That made me feel fantastic and raised my confidence moving into 2024. You can do the same!!
Make yourself accountable to people who are better than you and get their feedback on your work.
Educate yourself in the area of your ability in which you need to grow.
Set measurable indicators so that you can see you’re growing in your ability.
Let’s talk about the second thing that could be keeping you from reaching your goals.
KNOWLEDGE
I’m not talking about knowledge as it relates to your ability. I’m talking about knowledge as it relates to your industry and the systems inside of your industry.
I speak with so many people who have no idea how the music industry works or how the app industry works or how social media works and yet they are setting goals in those industries or disciplines while they are still a little blinded.
Creative industries are in constant flux. They’re effected by culture, consumer behaviors, legislation, and more. If you want to be a professional in any regard you have to be a student forever. That doesn’t mean to have to go to school or that you need a degree, but you need to have systems and habits for learning built into your life that will help you grow in the knowledge of your industry so that you can win.
Ignorance is a self-inflicted wound.
There are so many options and resources out there in the world that there really is no excuse for us to not be growing in knowledge.
It’s the difference between mindless scrolling and intentional learning.
Here are some basic ways that you can grow in knowledge so you can be more successful in 2024.
Find a podcast where people in your industry tell the stories of their experiences and devour it. Take notes and apply the stories as best you can to your current situation. The MYFI Podcast is intended to be just that for you!
Find out what books successful people in your industry are reading and read them. Set a simple habit like reading 20 minutes a day and watch how much you grow.
Take an online course about your particular industry, take notes, and make changes to your goals, rhythms, and work flow.
Now let’s talk about the third thing that could be holding you back.
RELATIONSHIPS
I have conversations with successful people in the music industry all the time and I ask them how they got to where they are. EVERY PERSON says the same thing. It’s some version of… I met this person and they connected me to this person who gave me a chance to work with this person and then I found myself in a room with these people and the rest is history.
So much of success in the creative industries are about relationships.
I don’t mean favoritism or manipulative relationships. I mean making genuine connection with people and seeing how you can mutually help each other.
A year ago there was an area of the music industry that I had no idea existed. But I was coaching a friend in Cincinnati who introduced me to a friend of his in Chattanooga and this guy invited me into an entire community of music producers that I didn’t know existed. Inside that community I’ve been connecting with all sorts of incredible people, but have really connected with 2 guys that I work with consistently and it’s going incredibly well.
I didn’t set some trajectory and try to manipulate myself into a certain room, but I did intentionally try to connect with people I felt a good vibe with, people I could learn from, people that I felt I could contribute to what they were working on and things started happening.
Don’t take advantage of people, don’t be manipulative, don’t be self-serving, but do be intentional, humble, and assertive in making connections with people you want to work with and from which you want to learn.
Here are some ways that you can connect with people.
Be genuinely supportive of the work of other people. Put your time and your money and your work where your mouth is.
Don’t be afraid to ask for time to work together or hang, but you better be ready to take advantage of the opportunity. Don’t ask if your talent or knowledge or character can’t handle it.
Don’t be discouraged if people don’t reciprocate. It takes a while to find the right people to work with sometimes and that’s ok.
And finally, the linchpin that could be keeping you from winning.
DISCIPLINE
The most talented people, the most knowledgable people, and the most connected people won’t make it very far if they don’t have the discipline to do the work.
At some point you have to be able to will yourself to do the work in front of you.
No one makes 1 piece of music and becomes successful. You have to make hundreds or thousands of pieces of music and that takes incredible discipline. The discipline to keep creating, growing, learning, and grinding because you want it so bad.
Most often it’s the person that wants it the most that finds success.
Make sure that in your work you keep your priorities straight. Take care of your family, your friends, your faith, your health and everything else that is important, but don’t make excuses to avoid the work.
Discipline is the thing it takes to grow in the other areas we talked about. It takes discipline to grow in your ability. It takes discipline to grow in your knowledge. It takes discipline to grow in your relationships.
Build daily rhythms in your life and do them.
Look at your calendar and task list every day. Look a day ahead and a week ahead and do the work that’s in front of you.
Evaluate where your disciplines are leading you and make sure that you’re headed in the right direction. If you’re not make adjustments.
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Identify which of these areas that you need to grow in and set some rhythms in your life to make that growth happen. I promise you will not regret it and you will be closer than ever to reaching the hopes and dreams you have.
If you need help reach out for a FREE 30 minute coaching call.
Also, check out the MY⚡️FI CREATIVE CLARITY PLANNER for Notion. It’s a free tool to help creative people organize in their ideas, tasks, projects, and habits.
You can also sign up for my FREE weekly newsletter MY⚡️FI MONDAY. It’s filled with practical inspiration for creatives, creative leaders, and creative organizations.
