Finding Peace of Mind

Finding Peace of Mind with My Music Career

You work a day job, you practice weekly with your band,  you have a family member who just got ill, your friend has a bachelor party in 2 days and you just realized yesterday you’re $200 short on rent and you have yet to send out your e-mail blast to invite your friends to your next show!

Is this is a stressful situation? ABSOLUTELY!

As a Musician you have a lot of hats to wear. Any one who views music as not a serious business is CRAZY! Think about it, we work 2 Jobs. Our day job and our real job. I mean…really…who does that?!

Then there’s the dream.  We are all working towards a specific future in our minds, but I encourage you to not let this future mess with your present-tense. Try to continue to have a personal and fulfilling life: Hang out with your friends, go have drinks, experience stuff – don’t always be working on your dream. At the same time, don’t fall into a practical routine. Be crazy. Be not the Norm. Move outside the circle of practicality and run circles around it.

While you’re running, here’s a few tips to help you get some peace of mind:

Find your support group:
This could be your brother, friend, Fan, band-mate – but find a support group.
People who love what you do and support what you do.

Excercise:
If you can’t join a gym, find a hobby where you are moving around. Tennis, Soft-ball, Football.
Two things are good about this:

1)You are getting outside of your perspective and meeting other people who are not “Musicians.”  This will build a more powerful social network for yourself.

2)You are going to need a place blow off some steam. This business is full of rejections. Lifting weights and running on a tread-mill is a lot better than sitting at home on Facebook seeing all the success your friends are having and getting depressed. Get off Facebook, join a gym and get motivated!

Build your network:
Look, we have Google+, Facebook and all of these other social networks. Find people that do what you do and meet them. Go to their shows, value their talent and get to know who they are – in return you will start creating an awesome network of music friends you can lean on in hard times, learn from and in the end, be a mentor to.

I’ve always been a big fan of Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth.” In this story he talks about the Hero (Inside info: George Lucas created Star Wars from Joseph Campbell’s principles) and the Journey.  Life is a journey not a destination and we learn from our teachers. Value your friends and surround yourself with people that are motivated thinkers and encourage you to challenge yourself and take risks.

By finding a mentor, you will learn things about yourself you never knew existed, by exercising you will be in great physical and mental shape and by building a powerful support group you will always have a friend to celebrate your successes and get you through a rough patch in life.

These 3 things will keep you  connected to your music and help you build a very fruitful music career for yourself.

Contributing article written by DWmarketingmusic

Did this article help you? Let our writer know. You can e-mail him at: dwmarketingmusic@gmail.com

His music website is: http://www.deronwade.com