We all have big dreams! That is the fuel that drives our ambition. Without big dreams, what’s the point really? Realizing big dreams however takes a well calculated and thought out series of many, many, MANY small steps.
You can’t win a Grammy without writing your first song. Right?
You can’t become an NBA superstar, without learning how to dribble a basketball. Correct?
Small steps.
The whole point is that by staying disciplined and following the path, your small steps will ultimately get you to your end goal with a little bit of persistence, dedication, and let’s face it… Good timing.
Here are five small things that you can do daily to help you follow that platinum brick road, impress your Grandma with your Grammy, and GET you your EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).
By: Justin Gray Founder/Chairman MDIIO
Listen - It’s such a simple and easy small thing. But listening is the key component to fostering your creativity at all times. It’s a great way to discern why something is on the radio, or in a television show, or in a film or advertisement. Break that down. What are they doing that you’re not doing? What are you doing that they are doing!? Be curious and go down the listening rabbit hole as much as possible. Watch with your ears, and listen with your eyes.
Learn - Open your mind up to better ways of doing things. Attending webinars or seminars can only help you expand your mind when it comes to maximizing your creativity. Learn an instrument, and let that create new inspiration for you. It doesn’t matter if it’s something as complex as a guitar, or as simple as a bongo drum. Educating yourself, and exposing yourself to new information it’s only going to improve what you do and how you do it.
Consistency - Too many people are inconsistent. Wake up at the same time every day. You can sleep in on Sundays. This doesn’t mean that you need to overwork yourself, it just means that consistency can help create healthy work patterns. Trying to maintain a diet, exercise, or even reading for 10 minutes are the little tools that build consistent practices in your everyday life. Despite popular demand, nobody ever succeeded by just “winging it.”
Schedule - If you plan to make songwriting and creativity your life, then why wouldn’t you put yourself on consistent work hours? Maybe you have a job, and that’s totally cool! But at least allowing yourself to sit down and write every day, even if it’s for a couple of hours, will build the discipline and consistency that you need to write better songs, and do them more efficiently. Creating work hours for your songwriting is just as important as going to the gym, eating healthy, or punching the clock at work.
Outreach - Self promote! Self promote! Self promote! Be your biggest fan. Make a point of not only writing, but expanding your network in your reach with other like-minded people. We’ve talked about this in the past, but an easy way to do this is by attending events, finding like-minded individuals and DM’ing them through social media. Don’t be precious! Release music so that people can find you. Build your tribe and expand your network. Your community is your commodity.
The Coda:
Nobody can argue with big dreams. But it’s completely incumbent upon you to take all of those little necessary steps to accomplish what it is that you really want to achieve. Wanting IT, and Doing IT are two completely different and separate but equally important things. There’s no motivation to do it unless you want it. And if you don’t really want it, then there’s no reason to do it at all. The question is do you want it? And will you take those small steps to get you there?
See you next week, and keep writing those hits!