Life is filled with tough decisions, especially when it comes to deciding what to do when it comes to your music career. Just when you feel like you’ve figured out what you need to do with one area of your music, up pops another thorny choice you have to decide on. What promotional opportunity will you take? What direction will you go in with your next single release? How will you sell your music online? What website platform will you use? What social media platform to invest in? What content from your personal life should you share? What do you write about? How do you get through rough patches in your music and how do you handle rejection? The questions go on and on! There’s very little you can do to avoid decisions and having to navigate through tough times whether they are difficult ones or not so difficult ones. However, you can make them easier by having a system of beliefs and values that act as a guiding compass for your music career.
As a musician, having a solid set of values will help you navigate tough decisions, see you through all kinds of rejection and be your guiding compass through ups and downs.— The Crafty Musician (@IndieArtistsDIY) December 31, 2018
The most straightforward approach to facilitate easier decision-making is to focus on your core values as an artist. What your belief system allows you to approve of is the key to relieve the stress that normally comes with tough decisions or circumstances. This will give you the clarity and focus you need as you move up in your music career. You’ll need a strong set of values to help you make important decisions throughout your music career. Consider the following value examples as a launching pad to come up with some of your own.
Morals
Your moral meter is your guide. With your moral meter being your guide, tough decisions feel way less crushing! When you use factors other than your morals to decide, you end up confused and doubtful of your choices.
Your morals can also be considered as your conscience. However, it’s easy to twist your conscience based on how your decisions affect others. So stick to your morals. They’ll always keep you on the right track.
Take a moment to consider what drives your morals. Is it experiences? Or what you grew up learning was right? Even though your morals are often consulted, be sure that they are coming from the best source.
For an independent artist, decisions you’ll make when it comes to collaborating with other artists and/or organizations will often come from whether or not their overall way of being lines up with your own morals. Who will you share the stage with? What venues will you agree to perform in. And very importantly, how will you handle situations where you get offered a higher paying gig on the same night you’ve already committed to another performance? These are the types of decisions you’ll need to make with a strong sense of morals as your guide.
Integrity
How do you hold up under pressure from friends and loved ones when they challenge your career choice? Do you make it a priority to go after what you want 100% no matter what others are saying? Have you committed to following your dreams with all of your time and resources or are you holding back for some reason? Are you true to your word? On the flip side, are you willing to make changes to yourself when you’re challenged? Do you uphold what’s right? Are you willing to make tough choices in order to facilitate what’s right? By committing to your values, you can be certain that you’re making a wise choice, despite what your friends or family may want you to do.
By making choices based on your own values, you’ll reduce stress. You can sleep well at night knowing that the compass you use is always on track. You’d be surprised how easily stress can eat away at you! When you try to please others instead of your morals, your mind is hardly at ease. Give yourself the peace of mind you deserve. Always choose one path to decision-making. It’s good to sacrifice for the special people in your life. But when that comes at the expense of your inner peace, it’s far from worth it!
Respect
What does respect mean to you? How do you show respect? How will you respect yourself? How will you respect your goals and your music? What types of platforms will you allow your music to be on, or not be on? How do you respect fellow artists?
Spend time understanding what’s really important to you as an artist. This will help you gain more clarity into who you are as an artist and see positive results in all aspects of your music especially when it comes to writing your songs, performing them for an audience, and interacting with your fans. As the new year rolls in, it’s important to revisit your values and clarify your purpose as an artist. You are here for a reason and your value should be respected and well communicated to yourself and to the world. Do you know what your values are? Are you clear on your purpose in the world as a musician? Are you ready to gain more happiness and fulfillment from your music and start attracting new fans like a magnet?
If so, join me for the upcoming Finding Your Musical Purpose 5 Day Challenge where we’ll work together to identify what your purpose is as a musician, what your mission is and define your personal value system. This 5 Day Challenge will help you figure out how to use your mission and purpose to cultivate a well-designed community of your most supportive fans in order to get the support you deserve for your music. It’s time to give your music the boost it needs to see even more results. If that sounds like something you’re interested in, join the Finding Your Musical Purpose Challenge here.
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The problem I have is that I’m very emotionally unstable. Not to the point to where when someone just says one word or sentence and I cry but I get pretty depressed sometimes. Sometimes it’s because I think of myself as a jerk or an idiot but it also could be about the situation.
Hi Brooke! Depression and mental illness is tough to cope with. Are you seeing a counselor? Do you have tools that can help you manage? If not, check out National Alliance on Mental Illness. They have tons of resources that can help. https://www.nami.org/find-support/nami-helpline/top-25-helpline-resources
I talk 2 a counselor at school but it’s not always the easiest 2 open up 2 her. She’s not exactly as understanding and it kind of feels like she’s babying me a little bit.