By Justin Gray (Songwriter/Producer/Founder www.wearemdiio.com) Winning is fun. It’s easy to celebrate success. Success is the cherry on top of your efforts. But does success taste as sweet without the bitterness of all the rejection we have to stomach? Rejection is overwhelming. And it sucks. Rejection is the Devil on your shoulder trying to limit your thinking and minimize your dreams. That power of negative energy and darkness is 10x stronger than positivity and light. Personally…I used to dwell in negativity. Every time I was denied my dream…or a door closed, the weight felt heavier. Do you feel like this sometimes? Wanting it so badly and being denied leads to self-doubt and heartache. Rejection is overwhelming. And as songwriters and creators, every time our art gets rejected it feels like a metaphorical sharp knife to the heart. Doesn’t it? Here are five ways to manipulate your mind, charge your chakras, and upside the downside to redefine the meaning of "success."
Creative Success - Every day that you wake up and get to write songs is a validation of your self-belief in you and your art. The fact that you can even carve something eternal out of the ethos should be a reminder that you are a bad a$$ mother *ucker!! Professional Success - Professional success is a series of compounded results over a period of time. It’s happened sure…the first song someone writes becomes a huge smash. Happened to my best friend Evan Bogart. The first song he ever wrote was SOS by Rihanna. But he had already spent YEARS in and around music, and developing the relationships that granted him access to that opportunity in the first place. And SOS only came to be after the girl group he was developing couldn’t get signed. Professional success can be determined by simply meeting one person today that can have a positive impact on your dream. Personal Success - Are you happy? That is the only measure of personal success. If you are not…why? Is it money? Is it validation? You are the product of your decisions. Drill down to the root and address the problem there. Solving the problem is not hard. Acknowledging it is!! If you can’t pay your rent, get a job. That job will give you money to help you live while you chase your dreams. Growth Success - Work hard, write hard…Not only have I seen this movie…I’ve starred in it. Wash dishes if you have to. Every dish you wash, is an investment you are making into yourself. You’re not killing your dream, you’re building it. Every dish will remind you why you MUST MAKE MUSIC WORK! You’ll hate it. But it will give you the dough you need to fuel your dream. Failure Success - Admittedly, I prefer all good news! We probably all do. I hate bad news. But without the base zero line, how can we really judge good v bad? Failing makes the sweet sweeter. Failure makes the high higher. Failure makes the great greater. My younger daughter is an elite gymnast. She watches videos of herself falling off the bar or the beam and laughs it off. They’re called "gym fails." But those failures are her best teachers. Learning from failure is failure success. The Coda: Imagine eating the best meal of your life every single day. How boring would that be? Or if every single song you write went to #1? Sounds great in principle, but in actuality…you wouldn’t be happy. I guarantee that. I know tons of miserable millionaires, and enlightened baristas. The possibility of failure every day is what drives the ambitious to succeed. What scares them is failure. What scares you? See you next week, until then keep writing them hits. Justin@mdiio.com