What’s the Thing That Keeps You From Reaching Your Music Career Goals?

Here are some of problems and obsticles :

• Lack of time
• Lack of money
• Lack of confidence
• Self-sabotage
• Not setting goals to begin with
• Not planning well enough
• Procrastination
• Having too many goals
• Not prioritizing my goals
• Spreading myself too thin
• Popular trends not going my way
• Not knowing where to start
• My day job
• Not putting what I know into action
• Perfectionism
• Fear of failure

How many of these can you relate to? I hope this list makes you realize that you are not alone when it comes to distractions, resistance, and excuses.

The thing is, successful artists deal with these very same hurdles. Musicians who reach higher levels don’t have some secret code and aren’t immune to the everyday obstacles we all encounter.

1) Decide

The first step to reaching any goal is to know where you’re headed. The clearer the target, the more purposeful your actions will be. That’s why the first step to accomplishment is to set a specific, measurable goal (or set of goals). Decide what you want and be crystal clear about what it is.

2) Plan

Once you know exactly what you want, the next step is to craft an action plan that will move you toward it. Take some time to brainstorm on paper. Make lists of the different types of activities you will need to engage in to reach the goal. Who will you need to contact, what do you need to learn, and what tools will help you get there? Work backwards from the goal and determine the specific steps you’ll need to take.

Martin Myers -founder Music Exchange Ryan Haslam and keynote speaker 9 time Grammy winner Bryan Michael Cox both from Atlanta –www.mex15.co.za

3) Start

Now it’s time to dive into the step that holds back most human beings: taking action! Look over your grand plan and ask yourself, “What’s the very first thing I need to do in each category?” Focus only on those initial things and … do them!Don’t worry about the entire project or the immensity of your goal. Just do the little thing that needs to be done today: make a phone call, send an email, design a web page, repair your equipment, or sit down to write a new song (or finish one you started).

4) Continue

Taking those initial actions in the Start phase may actually come easy if you’re exciting about the goal People who succeed muscle through the distractions and “continue” taking action, even when they’re short on time and energy. If your goal is truly important, you will find time to chip away at it and make progress – on a consistent basis.

5) Evaluate

If you get this far, congratulations! You’ve accomplished more than the majority of creative people (as sad as that is to say). You have decided what you want, created an action plan, started taking action, and have continued to work toward it, despite many temptations to do otherwise.

6) Adjust

Once you look at the actions you’ve taken thus far and measured the results look over your plan and tweak it. How you do that is super simple: Do more of what’s working and less of what isn’t working. Also, this is a good time to introduce a new goal or strategy that makes sense based on what you’ve learned from your actions so far.

7) Continue

Once again, consistent action and progress is key.