Ten years ago I was living in Auckland struggling to find work as a musician. I had the odd gig here and there and I was meeting people, but it was a slow and arduous journey.
Now, I live in beautiful hotels in exotic locations around the world because I developed and maintained these following five habits which I am going to share.
Five habits of highly-effective musicians:
1. Build a dream, write it down, and look at it each day. Without a well-defined dream, vision quest, goal or whatever you want to call it you may well find that you lose focus and direction and end up squandering much of your time. Try to write your goals down using SMART criteria
SMART criteria explanation
2. Do something each day that brings you a little bit closer to achieving your dream. As a musician this could be as simple as practising or adding a new musical friend on facebook, or going to watch a gig. It was said that "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Heed that and steadily work towards the realisation of your dream.
3. Display unwavering commitment to your dream. Do not let life get in the way of living. Too often we give up on something because so many hurdles seem to pop up, and jumping them consumes your time and energy to the point where you feel that you just can't jump them anymore. The thing is, maybe the finish line is just over the next hurdle...
4. Surround yourself with things related to your dream. Hang out with people that are heading in the same direction that you are, or with people that are already doing what you want to do. Put pictures of musicians up in your room or under the bridge where you may be living. Never put your instrument back in its case...
5. Ask for help to achieve your dream. No one in the history of the world has achieved their dream alone. We all need help at various stages of our odyssey. Do not be too proud or naive to think that you can solo it all the way, because you can't.
Here is what I did in relation to those 5 habits.
1. Build a dream, write it down, and look at it each day. I learnt this while I was trying to build an Amway business in the late 1990s. I still have the piece of paper upon which I wrote down my dreams. I wrote down such things as:
A dear friend of mine and great band leader, always writes his goals down. Several years ago he was a member of a band during which time he became disillusioned with his band leader . So he decided to leave and form his own band. He wrote down his goal of becoming a band leader and six months later myself and five others became part of his dream. We went on to become one of the most popular bands in the Middle East "KAHA- THE POWER".
2. Do something each day that brings you a little bit closer to achieving your dream. For me this was usually practising. I also committed time to looking and advertising my services in the local newspapers, and when the Internet came along I would often peruse websites for gigs or for opportunities to post my biography in the hope of gaining someones attention.
3. Display unwavering commitment to your dream. I was super determined to become a full-time musician. I enjoyed teaching for the most part but it was never as fulfilling as performing on stage and having the opportunity to display the results of all of my years of diligent study to an audience. In hindsight I remember one of the hardest things for me was seeing a lot of my friends getting jobs, buying nice cars, their first homes, having children, while I was still struggling away trying desperately to find more regular work as a musician.
I did do quite a few non-music related jobs to support myself such as:
4. Surround yourself with things related to your dream. I had guitars, Cd's, videos, music books scattered all through the house. Almost everyday I would head to my brothers house and we would play for hours on end. He is also an outstanding musician but he has never been interested in performing publicly. This was all done in a tiny community called Torere, on the East coast of New Zealand's North island. Which just goes to prove that you don't have to be from a big city to 'make it' as a musician.
5. Ask for help to achieve your dream. So many people have helped along the path that I simply can't acknowledge them all. But if I had to name 5 prime movers and shakers that got me along the path they would be:
Those five people above have been instrumental in helping me achieve so many of my goals. I don't know where I would be now if it wasn't for their faith, support, guidance and assistance during my odyssey.
I can't think of a better way to end this post than publicly thanking each and everyone one of the many people that have believed in me.
Kia kaha, Kia maia, Kia manawanui! ( Be strong, Be peaceful, Be resolute!)
Now, I live in beautiful hotels in exotic locations around the world because I developed and maintained these following five habits which I am going to share.
Five habits of highly-effective musicians:
1. Build a dream, write it down, and look at it each day. Without a well-defined dream, vision quest, goal or whatever you want to call it you may well find that you lose focus and direction and end up squandering much of your time. Try to write your goals down using SMART criteria
SMART criteria explanation
2. Do something each day that brings you a little bit closer to achieving your dream. As a musician this could be as simple as practising or adding a new musical friend on facebook, or going to watch a gig. It was said that "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Heed that and steadily work towards the realisation of your dream.
3. Display unwavering commitment to your dream. Do not let life get in the way of living. Too often we give up on something because so many hurdles seem to pop up, and jumping them consumes your time and energy to the point where you feel that you just can't jump them anymore. The thing is, maybe the finish line is just over the next hurdle...
4. Surround yourself with things related to your dream. Hang out with people that are heading in the same direction that you are, or with people that are already doing what you want to do. Put pictures of musicians up in your room or under the bridge where you may be living. Never put your instrument back in its case...
5. Ask for help to achieve your dream. No one in the history of the world has achieved their dream alone. We all need help at various stages of our odyssey. Do not be too proud or naive to think that you can solo it all the way, because you can't.
Here is what I did in relation to those 5 habits.
1. Build a dream, write it down, and look at it each day. I learnt this while I was trying to build an Amway business in the late 1990s. I still have the piece of paper upon which I wrote down my dreams. I wrote down such things as:
- travel to places like Angkor Wat, the pyramids, Maciu Piccu,
- own a home etc
- have 50k in the bank
I have accomplished some but not all...yet! The power of writing your goals down should not be cast aside lightly. If you don't write your goals down you run the risk of being sidetracked, or you will change your goals to suit your circumstances and possibly not achieve that which you considered to be of paramount importance once upon a time.
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| My fiance and I at Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia |
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| A DJ that we worked with in Dubai made this for us. (I'm the alien) |
2. Do something each day that brings you a little bit closer to achieving your dream. For me this was usually practising. I also committed time to looking and advertising my services in the local newspapers, and when the Internet came along I would often peruse websites for gigs or for opportunities to post my biography in the hope of gaining someones attention.
3. Display unwavering commitment to your dream. I was super determined to become a full-time musician. I enjoyed teaching for the most part but it was never as fulfilling as performing on stage and having the opportunity to display the results of all of my years of diligent study to an audience. In hindsight I remember one of the hardest things for me was seeing a lot of my friends getting jobs, buying nice cars, their first homes, having children, while I was still struggling away trying desperately to find more regular work as a musician.
I did do quite a few non-music related jobs to support myself such as:
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| Farming- slashing one of the paddocks on the farm |
- cutting firewood (a super hard job that I would only recommend for the heartiest of souls)
- commercial fishing (another tough job but at least you could eat the fish)
- farming (again, not an easy job but it did provide me with the single biggest cheque of my life when I sold all of my cows circa US$24,000)
- kiwifruit picking ( I hated it so I gave up at the end of the first day)
- Marketing (I was the head of Marketing research for a Credit Union and I also did private research for a firm that was developing a business program for personal development)
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| The view from home, Torere, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand |
5. Ask for help to achieve your dream. So many people have helped along the path that I simply can't acknowledge them all. But if I had to name 5 prime movers and shakers that got me along the path they would be:
- Mum n Dad
- Tama Karena
- Tama Waipara
- Patrick Siolo
- Kere Amohau
Those five people above have been instrumental in helping me achieve so many of my goals. I don't know where I would be now if it wasn't for their faith, support, guidance and assistance during my odyssey.
I can't think of a better way to end this post than publicly thanking each and everyone one of the many people that have believed in me.
Kia kaha, Kia maia, Kia manawanui! ( Be strong, Be peaceful, Be resolute!)
This is worthwhile information. I know Im going to look at some of these ideas for my own development
ReplyDeleteHey Eric, thank you so much for your comment. I really think writing down goals is the single-most important habit. It is like your guiding light from point A to point B. I'm still developing as a person and as a musician. I look forward to our continuing dialogues.
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