In one part of Indie Music Confidential I share my 30 best tips on goal setting, productivity and motivation. Here are five of them:1) What's your big WHY? You want to book lots of shows, sell tons of music, and have throngs of fans. That's great. But why do you want those things? What's the bigger reason? What's your grand vision? What's your life's mission and purpose ... and how does being a successful musician fulfill that? Yes, these are deep questions. But having a clear answer will make all the difference in the world.
2) Write them down to make them happen. And write them in ink. Don't keep your goals in your head. Commit them to paper (or at least type them into a computer program and print them out, which is still producing them on paper). The idea is to make your goals tangible, and getting them on paper is the first step.
3) Make your goals specific and measurable. Saying "I want to be a rock star" is admirable, but what is that exactly and how do you know when you've arrived? Instead, make your goals concrete: "I want to play 25 live shows and build my mailing list to 2,000 people by the end of May." That kind of goal is also measurable. By the end of May, you'll know how close you came to reaching (or exceeding) it.
4) Focus on the little chunk at hand. Don't get overwhelmed by the entire scope of a daunting project. For each of your big music career goals, ask yourself, "What's the very first thing I should do on this project?" or "What's the very next thing that needs to be done?" The answer may be as simple as "Call Sue to get the name of the web designer she used for her site." Put that -- and only that -- on your list of next action steps. Don't expend mental energy on the many steps that will follow. Just focus on that one phone call until it's completed. After it's completed, ask, "What next?"
Effective goal setting, then, is simply a matter of taking micro action steps, one at a time.
5) Just do it for 5 minutes. Wanna know the best way to overcome procrastination, hands down? Tell yourself that you'll spend just five minutes working on the thing you know you should be doing ... but don't really feel like doing now. What stops you is the thought of working for hours on end. But anyone, no matter how lethargic, can muster the strength to play around with something for five measly minutes. What you'll find, though, is that once you get started, you'll get into a flow that will carry you well beyond the first five minutes. I've done this for years with my writing projects. It works. The trick is just starting.
To learn more about Indie Music Confidential, pay a quick visit to this page.
-Bob
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