5 ways limiting beliefs keep you from going pro in electronic music
A tough-love wake-up call for those who truly want to feel fulfilled, happy and satisfied in electronic music
Picture this. You’ve posted your new mix on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Myspace, Reddit, and a million other channels, but you only got a few plays, what the fuck? Of course so and so has a lot of reach, they’ve got money and a whole team behind them. If you’d have that, you’d be at that level too. But you just don’t want to push your tracks down your followers’ throats, all 430 of them. You gotta take it easy on social media. Also, you really can’t be bothered with the constant self-promotion to get yourself noticed.
There is much time and effort that goes into it. Besides, it’s not cool to be spammy or commercial. And the music should speak for itself anyway.
Let me ask you this. How has this worked for you so far? Are you truly happy?
Chances are, you’re not because you’re letting limiting beliefs stop you from going pro in electronic music.
A year from now, do you still want to be in the same place you are now?
If you’re not feeling satisfied, happy, and fulfilled right now, then you must start doing things differently, otherwise, nothing will change.
You keep yourself small by allowing your limiting beliefs - your self-imposed limitations and negative narratives to become excuses that stop you from rising to your full potential and pursuing your dreams in electronic music.
“There’s nothing admirable about keeping yourself small so that others wouldn’t feel uncomfortable around you. ”
What happens if you don’t challenge your limiting beliefs in electronic music?
Here are 5 ways your limiting beliefs stop you from going pro in electronic music:
1. “I’m blameless”
Your lack of EQ leads to bad collaborations and ghosting. When you lack emotional intelligence you’re not capable of managing relationships properly. As a consequence, people don’t want to work with you anymore. How many times have electronic music producers ghosted you after going back and forth on a track together? But you’re not to blame, it’s not you, it’s them. They ghosted you and you don’t know what happened. Blaming external events or situations is the easy and lazy way out. Interestingly though, once the current external event is over (such as a collab that does work out better), you quickly find something else to blame for your situation.
2. “I’m worthless”
Perfectionism makes you unable to finish your tracks. Your music always sounds shit to you. So much so in fact that you haven’t even created - let alone finished a track in 5 months’ time. Look, if you don’t value what you do and if you believe is worthless, worthless is all you’ll see. But things have both short-term and long-term results. Only focusing on short-term results could cause you to miss an opportunity.
3. “It’s hopeless”
You become desperate because you lack a strong network based on authentic relationships. You stress over networking because it’s all about who you know in this business right? In reality, you wouldn’t even know who to send your tracks to or how to even breakthrough, because you literally have no authentic connections to people. You think you NEED certain people, even if you’re not sure whether or not you like them. All you know is that they are in those “key” positions, so you better make sure you get their attention somehow. (read: awkwardly forcefully clumsily)
4. “It’s useless”
Crippling self-doubt eats away at your confidence. All the other electronic music producers or DJs get good opportunities. Just never you. You’re spending hours scrolling Instagram comparing yourself to other electronic music professionals and end up deciding it’s useless. It’s not going the way you wanted it or according to your timeline. You’re forgetting that everything has both a short-term and long-term result. Only focusing on short-term results could cause you to miss an opportunity.
5. “I’m helpless”
You become needy because - again, you lack a strong network based on authentic relationships. You get turned down time and time again by almost every label you send your tracks to. You think you NEED certain people, even if you’re not sure whether or not you like them. All you know is that they are in those “key” positions, so you better make sure you get their attention somehow. You stress over networking because you just don’t take the time and effort to understand who exactly to send your tracks to, nor to forge authentic relationships. Also, you can’t be bothered with the constant self-promotion to get noticed, but you do expect to get noticed. Common, how is that going to work, besides sounding like a total brat? Nobody wants to work with a brat.
Is this making you feel good? Are you happy and is that the kind of person you want to be?
73% of independent music makers in 2019 said that they have experienced negative emotions related to their music-making. (1)
But it’s not their fault, it’s the pressure of the industry, right? How much longer are you going to blame the outside world before you realize that you can’t control the ENTIRE industry. Yes, there is pressure, for sure. There is a lot of it! Not just from the industry, but also from your mother, society, and everyone else and their brother. How much more time will you spend feeling like this and leading an unhappy, unfulfilled life until you realize you were holding the key to solving this all along?
You need to decide to stop believing in the crap you’ve believed so far and start believing in new things.
You get to choose to spend your time more wisely, instead of worrying on average 2 hours a day (2) or spending over 2 hours a day mindlessly scrolling on social media (3) and putting yourself down by comparison.
You get to choose.
You get to have that freedom, and quite frankly, the majority of the electronic music industry is white, so you’re probably hella privileged too.
You get to make that choice and feel happy and fulfilled. You get to spend at least 2 MORE hours a day on your music if you’d just stop the constant worrying, fretting, self-victimizing and self-loathing.
Wouldn’t that be 2 hours better spent?
How much more time are you going to keep wasting feeling lost, unfulfilled, unsatisfied?
You could have been so much further in fulfilling your dream. It’s cool to respect your own pace and tempo, but only if that’s what it is. If you’re holding on to self-imposed limitations just because that’s more comfortable than actually putting in the work that’s needed to grow than you’re seriously missing out. And running out of time too. You’re missing every opportunity you didn’t take just because you don’t want to go through the uncomfortable moments of growth needed to succeed in electronic music.
More importantly, you’re totally missing out on feeling good, doing what makes you happy, healing your soul, and the universal language to express yourself: music!
It’s possible to live out your dream - something many long to do but don't have the guts for.
REFERENCES:
(1) the73percent.com
(2) Anxiety rates have doubled among young people during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study. University of Bristol experts analyzed data from more than 3,000 Britons and found a quarter of people under the age of 28 had suspected anxiety disorder during the crisis, compared to 13 percent pre-pandemic. More than six in 10 said worrying has affected their well-being while others admit it has led to arguments with their partner, relationship splits, and even the loss of their job.
(3) The average internet user spends 2 hours, 24 minutes daily on social media in 2020. This is a slight difference from the average social media time recorded in 2019 – 2 hours, 22 minutes. However, compared to what we had in 2012 (1 hour), people are spending even more time in the social media world. (Source: We Are Social)
(4) Even though I haven’t researched this and this is my personal view, according to Statista, public opinion on the racial diversity of electronic music, the genre is considered to be one of the least racially diverse in the United States as of May 2018.
Let’s continue the conversation!
Share 1 limiting belief that is holding you back and describe how below. This will help you to become aware of it so that you can change it! Bonus points if you share how you’ll turn this around.