The power of Goal Setting: A Foolproof Plan for Reaching Your Music Aspirations Faster (I)

When the topic of goal setting comes up, most musicians run for cover. In fact, I’ll bet that right now you’re seriously thinking about skipping this chapter so you can move ahead to the “good stuff.” That’s understandable, but I urge you to ignore those instincts temporarily and stick with this article.

And while you’re at it, relax. Planning for the future doesn’t have to be painful. In fact, you’ll find that getting on friendlier terms with the noble art of goal setting will propel you toward reaching your musical dreams – while also giving you more juice and energy with which to pursue them.

Of course, you may be one of those people who says, “Planning never gets me anywhere. I always run into brick walls and end up bitter and frustrated. No, I just like to let things happen and let nature take its course.”

Don’t lose control

While there’s nothing wrong with letting your instincts guide you toward your true passion in life, taking the “let things happen” approach too far often leads to stagnation.

How else can you explain the slew of cynical, aimless musicians who populate most music scenes? They muddle through gig after gig, waiting for nature to take its course, and then suddenly wake up one day and wonder why they’re no better off today than they were 10 years ago.

The ugly truth: If you read nothing else in this and subsequent articles, at least contemplate this: When you just “let things happen” with your music career, you take the steering wheel of success out of your hands. You’ll always be at the mercy of someone or something else. In essence, you lose control over where you really want to take your skills and talents.

People who succeed in music use goal setting to get back in the driver’s seat and step on that accelerator pedal known as “accomplishment.” (Pardon the poetic car analogies, but they help make the point.)

The good news is that you most likely already possess the skills to set goals effectively. Have you ever written a song? Have you ever gone into studio to record your music? If so, you’ve been setting goals and didn’t even realise it.

Example: when you showed up at the studio for your first recording session, what did you do? Did you look at your fellow band members and say, “Jeez, I wonder what we should do now? Anybody got any good song ideas?”

Well, unfortunately, some musicians do this (I talk to studio engineers, you know), but hopefully you realise that not being prepared is senseless. You’ve got money invested in the session, you’ve had a dream to put out your own CD for years, plus you’ve got fans who are eagerly awaiting the recording… you’d be nuts to go in there unprepared!

You didn’t do that, did you?

Of course not. You went into that studio with a game plan – a list of songs, knowing who’s playing what parts, when the harmonies come in, maybe even a title for the album. That’s all that goal setting is: Knowing what you want to do before you set out to do it.

So in the same way you’d be wasting your time and money not being prepared to go into that studio, so too are you wasting your precious resources by being unprepared when it comes to your overall career. Does that make sense to you?

Being focused but flexible

Goal setting is not a rigid science. The plans you come up with are fluid – you can expect them to evolve and change over time. This is yet another concept you should be familiar with, especially if you’re a songwriter. Many songwriters (myself included) write using just a guitar or piano and voice.

However, when many of these artists create a new composition, they often hear much more than that sparse arrangement in their heads. The drums, the bass part, maybe an entire string section… all of it is there in the mind’s ear. Perhaps you create the same way.

Then you take this skeleton of a song and share it with your other band members, explaining to each the parts you hear ringing through your gray matter. But the song the band ends up playing and recording is usually quite different from the version you originally heard in your head. However, the newer version is almost always better.

Bottom line: The plans you come up with when goal setting will change as you work toward them. But the mere act of coming up with an idea, visualising it in your mind, and acting on it will drive you to take those first important steps. While the end result isn’t always the one you expected, it’s usually one you can learn and grow from and hopefully be proud of.