Letting go of the outcomes of your goals in electronic music
One of my clients, Kate, reached out to me right before COVID first hit. She was looking to promote herself as a DJ with her own identity, to create a following, and to inspire others. She struggled with procrastination and motivation. She wanted to feel like she was making the most of her time, make healthier choices, achieving and moving forward. She was eager to have a timetabled plan of how to efficiently fit things in and keep it manageable.
And then COVID hit. Just like for many others, her life turned upside down and she suddenly found herself at home wearing many, many hats: concerned mother, devoted and supportive wife, home school teacher, passionate DJ. She was confronted with numerous challenges and unexpected twists and turns.
And yet, just 4 weeks later, she landed a livestream gig with over 1K live views. A couple of weeks later, she informed me that she had been asked for a DJ residency and she landed a weekly radio show as well.
She had organised her home life in such a way that everything was running smoothly for her family and she still managed to achieve and move forward no matter what life - or COVID threw at her.
She had her goal of working toward a healthier more balanced life, but she let go of the outcome.
What she received in return were results beyond her imagination. She focused on the effort, she was really committed to feeling good and to keep taking action even when she couldn't see the results right away and she trusted in the guidance that was given to her.
Why should you set goals for yourself in electronic music?
Setting goals for yourself give you a way to measure your efforts and achievements in electronic music. Your goals for your music will give you a sense of direction. Knowing what to do, what the action steps are, and when to do them give you the clarity, security and confidence you need to move forward in electronic music.
When challenges present themselves and moments of uncertainty hit - and you know they will, it’s important to be resilient so that you can bounce back more easily when life throws you a curveball.
What impact do goals have on success?
Research from Queen Mary University of London (2020) (1) shows the complex relationship between effort and reward in goal setting.
Dr. Osman, Reader in Experimental Psychology at Queen Mary, said: "If we aren't careful our plans can be informed by unrealistic expectations because we pay too much attention to the rewards. Then when we face the reality of our choices, we realise the effort is too much and give up. For example, getting up early to exercise for a new healthy lifestyle might seem like a good choice when we decide on our new year's resolutions, but once your alarm goes off on a cold January morning, the rewards aren't enough to get you up and out of bed."
Why is it important to let go of the outcomes of your goals in electronic music?
Manage your expectations of the goals you set for your music, and yourself in general so that you don’t set yourself up for disappointment.
This will help you to:
Focus on the effort needed to achieve the goal instead,
Become more resilient so that you can deal with setbacks, rejection and criticism along the way,
Be pleasantly surprised at how things eventually turn out,
Ease up on yourself and to appreciate where you are on your journey in music!
Don’t identify with your goals, you are not your goals. Your goals give you a sense of direction so that you don’t fly blind. But holding on to the outcome is the wrong thing to focus on. This may sound weird, especially if you have a deadline to catch.
It’s about…
being open to creative solutions. Leaving room to course-correct if and when necessary and not stress about the exact details, rather focus on the effort and the process working towards the goal.
the habits you install along the way. The things you learn from the mistakes you make and being mindful of them so that you know where there is room for improvement.
having faith that everything will work out perfectly just for you. With the emphasis on “just for you”, so that when you look back you can see that the way things eventually turned out, it benefited you in the end, instead of being disappointed about not getting the exact result you wanted.
how it’s making you feel, not what you obtain. The things you obtain are neutral - like money, gear, praise. All that is neutral. It’s the meaning we attach to them that makes them different. That makes them either a good or a bad experience for you.
Also, you have no control over the outcome. As an electronic music producer or DJ you know this. You never know EXACTLY how a set, mix or track is going to turn out.
“You have an idea or vision in your mind for your track or mix, but you know that if you keep obsessing or stressing over the outcome, it’s never going to get done. ”
Let go of the need to manically control everything. You don’t know when you’ll reap the rewards and how long that’s going to last. It could be in a year from now when someone just out of the blue contacts you to tell you they’ve seen you play at XYZ and they enjoyed it. You never know who’s watching and/or listening.
How can you let go of the outcome of your goals in electronic music?
It may feel counterintuiïtive or even sound like a load of crap to you. You’re being told that setting goals is important to your success in electronic music but you gotta let go of the desired results you wish to achieve with them. However, once you start practicing the below steps you’ll notice a shift in how you treat your goals altogether. Because you’re not meant to identify with your goals. Don’t make your goals mean anything about who you are as a person.
4 actionable steps to let go of the outcome and enjoy working towards achieving your goals in music and in life!
1. Get clear on what you’re doing it for
A goal is an outcome of a value, the essence of what you wish to achieve and why you wish to accomplish it. What is it for?
It’s not about what you need to do to book success, it’s about why you want to do it. What’s your purpose? That’s an internal process. Once you get a clear vision on that, the external things you need to do to support that purpose, will align more easily.
2. Identify what’s within your circle of control
What can you control directly?
What can you influence?
What is outside of your control?
Once you get clear on that, you can decide what you want to change, improve, stop doing.
3. Stop blaming others
If you don’t like where you are now and not seeing the results you want to see, then you need to look at your own behaviour. Stop blaming other people or circumstances outside your control. Referring back to the previous point, identify what’s within your control.
4. Meditate
Practice meditation every day to make sure you are mentally prepared before you start anything and so that you can cultivate a growth mindset to help you keep going. Simply put, you need to have both feet firmly on the ground, all day err day.
If you make it a habit of grounding yourself through meditation every day, you’ll start noticing you become more calm and focused. Lucky for you, you can do that in only 10 minutes with this guided meditation. Just sit and listen!
You are not your goals so don’t make them mean anything about you as a person, an artist. If a track/mix/gig doesn’t turn out exactly as you had envisioned, it doesn’t mean you're a crap artist or not capable as a person.
You set a goal so that you can have a clear direction to work in. Just don’t obsess or stress about the outcomes otherwise you’ll miss out on a whole lot of fun and opportunies for growth!
Referecences
(1) Queen Mary University of London. "Psychologists discover secret to achieving goals." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 20 February 2020.
Let’s continue the conversation!
Do you obsess or stress over the outcomes of your goals in electronic music? If so, why and what will you do about it? Share in the comments below and let me know!