At the beginning of the summer I wrote about my uncertainties in pursuing a career in music. I haven’t been relieved of all these concerns, but I’ve begun acting on them in a big way. I figure the more afraid of my career I am, the more important it is to me. A few things have been really helpful;
- Surrounding myself with the smartest people in the world: What I mean by this is NOT that I happen to have an all-star cast of genius friends at my beck and call, but that I’ve begun to read, and watch informational YouTube videos every morning during breakfast, and while I fall asleep at night. I moved to a town where I have no close friends so I’ve surrounded myself with the best books, and experts to advise me on any problem I have in life. For the challenges we all face in our art/work, our body image, our social selves, or our wallets there is an expert on a library shelf, or one google search away who can help answer our questions.
- More specifically, reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (3 times this summer). The book is short and full of advice from a experienced novelist who has fought against the universal enemies every artist faces; procrastination, inconsistency, uncomfortability, and any other form of resistance that we perpetuate.
- Listening to Gary Vaynerchuk
- Getting a part time job. Taking on more financial responsibility after school, and learning that I DON’T want to serve coffee for a career, but it will do for now.
- Waking up early.
- Treating my art like a full time job. For most artists there is no job position to fill, and no one looking to “hire” us. We must not only become an expert at what we do, but we must create the job we are looking to fill. To do this, we must “turn pro”. What this means is that just like any other job we will;
- Show up to work everyday
- Show up all day, no matter what (even if all day is only a few hours)
7. On top of making friends with lots of different authors (can be lonely) I am constantly reaching out to my real friends who are often great at something that I know nothing about, and they are willing to teach me.
Along with all this rather heavy stuff, I’ve been having a blast as well
Also! I have some exciting things in the works regarding a bi-weekly newsletter (that will include each blog post), where I’m at with the album, and a new YouTube channel.
Thanks for checkin in,
Love,
Loveday