It has been a few weeks since I’ve posted anything and today was the big breakthrough day.
Today, I had a moment of what I like to call, “A moment of transcendence” A moment when I finally broke down that big wall of doubt, fear and being blocked up and finally pushed through to the other side.
Yes, this is still a music industry blog so please don’t think it’s a self help site and that I’m about to sell you some lame Tony Robbins book, but what happened to me today is something that directly relates to you, your band and the music industry as a whole.
Just a few hours ago I decided that I needed to get my blood pumping and do some exercise, so I decided to go to the park for a jog. I Normally do about two laps around a pretty long park and by the end I’m pretty beat.
As anyone who has been through this before knows, when you haven’t been for a jog or done any exercise for a while, the moment you start your muscles start tightening up and it takes a few minutes to get into a routine.
I personally like trying to sync up my breathing cycles with the pace of my legs.
Anyway, as I was jogging, I got to the half way mark, I looked ahead of myself to see what lay ahead so I could psychologically prepare for it in my mind, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this big massive stitch hit me at the bottom of my stomach.
BOOOOOOM!
Typical huh? Your half way through, you can see what needs to happen to complete the task ahead, you think your on track and then in comes a curve ball and hits your with a big cramp..
Then I was hit with a moment of truth, do I stop running or continue on? Do I throw the towel in and think that one lap was enough for today considering I’m a little out of shape or do I press on and push through to the other side?
Very quickly, I realized that if I just focus on my breath, stop thinking about the pain and just focus one breath at a time the pain will go away.
Slowly but surely, this is what happened and before I knew it, I had no only overcome my stitch, I ended up doing three laps of the park instead of two and the truth is that I was so focused on my breath that I totally forgot how many laps I did until I finished!
How’s that for a moment of transcendence?
It’s also a great feeling when you build the strength and courage to push through those sorts of barriers and break through. It’s always so easy to throw in the towel when you see a difficult path ahead or get faced with challenges.
The first question you might be asking yourself is why did I think about bands and the music industry when I experienced this moment today? I have had a million other things going on in my life at the moment, why specifically this aspect of life?
The simple truth is that breaking through in the music industry and not taking no for an answer is exactly what is required of you to get anywhere in this business.
Let’s not beat around the bush - the music industry is on its feet! Record Label sales are dying in the ass, year after year, retail stores are closing and going bankrupt left right and centre and MTV have almost become a soft porn channel keeping their viewers hooked with video clips of practically naked women. .
It’s really a sad state of affairs out there.
It doesn’t matter how good your or your band think you are, if your not able to push through pass that moment of getting a stitch and overcome the negative comments from A&R guys or booking agents or the “we can’t play your band on our station” or even the lazy attitude of thinking other people will do all this annoying dirty work for you - then you should start thinking about getting an office job sitting in a cubicle for the next couple of years.
Think of bands like the Offspring. It took them ten years before they had their first hit! Ten years of being knocked back and being told by labels that they are not interested. They still put out music and carried on until all of a sudden they wrote an album that went on to sell over 10 million copies world wide.
They pushed through, they were creative in keeping the flame alive. For whatever reason, it just didn’t happen for them, but they never gave up!
Again, this isn’t a Tony Robbins lecture series but whether you like it or not, it’s the truth. Experiencing moments of hardship and struggle that can potentially lead you to moments of transcendence is what the journey is all about.
Let’s face it, when The Offspring ended up collecting their Grammy awards and gold record label plarks for that record, their big smiles came not because they were holding a gold record, it was because they were standing at the top of the mountain and can now laugh and be proud of the hardships they went through to get there. Ten years of hard labour finally paid off!
Pushing through that moment when you just can’t be bothered mailing out your demo to fifty people, or keep being told by all the bars that they are not interested in your band playing there, or that every record label have told you they are not interested is exactly what it’s all about!
Moments of transcendence.
The amazing thing I also realized today which I believe is the real kicker is that the potential to overcome those moments when the stitch kicked in, existed before I even started jogging. That challenge was always going to happen and the potential to overcome it or become a victim of it existed beforehand.
It’s a pretty wild idea if you think about it for a moment……
In other words, the opportunity for you and your band to make a career in the music business is already there in a potential state, it’s really just up to you to realize it. You might not end up being the next Coldplay or U2, however with enough motivation, enough vigor and enough balls to keep pushing forward, you will end up where you need to get to.
The world is a mad crazy place where anything is possible.
So with that in mind, my suggestion is that you take one aspect of your bands career that is in a state of having that end of lap one stitch and things are really not going your way, and begin to figure out how to transcend its current state.
I would love to hear your feedback and results!
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Tags: Music Industry Mindsets
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