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Accept The Challenge. Take Ownership.

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This is part 3 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.

“A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.”
– Lewis Mumford

Assuming that you’ve done what I asked yesterday and decided what you want, you’re probably wondering if it’s possible.

This is natural. If you’re not feeling any hint of trepidation, you’re not thinking big enough.

Challenge Leads To Flow…

According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychology professor who has researched the phenomenon in hundreds of people for decades, one of the essential elements of the flow state is challenge.

Because without challenges you’re not inspired to achieve. You must challenge yourself to prevent boredom which is in many ways the opposite of flow.

As Does Ownership Of Decisions

He has also found that those who regularly enter flow feel that they have ownership of their decisions. They have chosen their course of action which isn’t random or as a result of external circumstances.

Given that two of the prerequisites for getting into flow are challenge and ownership, it’s remarkable how many musicians, whether they be newbies or seasoned professionals, use external challenges as an excuse for a lack of action.

The “Excuses Hit Parade”

Two of the most beloved excuses for us musos are “the state of the economy” and “the music industry is dead”. We just love blaming our woes on either, or even better – both.

This isn’t new.

17 years ago, when I made my first record (it was an real vinyl record back then), I remember nervously shuffling into an industry executive’s office.

He took a great deal of pleasure in informing me that the recent recession was still causing “a bloodbath” (his words), and he couldn’t see it improving anytime soon as “the music industry is dead” (his words again).

He then told me to give up and do something else. Being young and foolish, I didn’t listen. And I went ahead and made a living for 17 years in the “dead” music industry. I still hear variations of the same story today.

And in another 17 years you will hear it again.

Challenges? Or Opportunities?

We are going through dark economic times.

And there have been seismic shifts in the way we write, distribute and consume music which has meant that some old models are dead. But that does not mean that the music industry is dead, it is just different. It will continue to change every day.

Change equals challenge. But challenges are simply opportunities in disguise if you have the right attitude.

So “the music industry is in such a state of flux that all bets are off” becomes…

“the music industry is in such a state of flux that anything is possible.”

Stop Complaining

Do you find yourself complaining and blaming external circumstances?

I know I did for years until I realised what I was doing. But by blaming something or someone else you are just moving your power from yourself to whatever you’re blaming.

Don’t let your challenges define you, because your response to them will always define what happens to you.

No More Excuses

“As far as I was concerned, the Depression was an ill wind that blew some good. If it hadn’t occurred, my parents would have given me my college education. As it was, I had to scrabble for it.”
– Sargent Shriver

There are a many reasons you could find for not be able to do something. But there are just as many you could find to do it. And while you’re making excuses there will be many just getting on with it and succeeding.

So if you decided what your perfect life or career would be last night and woke up this morning with thoughts like…

  • “the music industry is dead”
  • “the economy sucks”
  • “I don’t have the time”
  • “I don’t have the equipment”
  • “I need more software”
  • “I haven’t got the contacts”
  • “I don’t have the talent”
  • “I don’t know how”
  • “I’m scared”
  • “I’m too old”
  • “I’m too young”
  • “I’ve got kids”
  • “I’ve got a high pressure job”
  • “I need to pay the bills”
  • “that record label ripped me off”
  • “my agent is useless”
  • “my manager only cares about his other artists”
  • “I don’t get paid enough”
  • “the crowd doesn’t understand me”
  • “I’ll do it when I’ve…”

…remember that for every possible excuse you can find there will be hundreds, if not thousands who have overcome it.

Find Inspirational People And Read Their Stories

Even if you’re facing particularly challenging circumstances it’s likely that others have done the same.

It’s not hard to find people who have not only overcome huge adversity but found great success and understanding from that adversity.

In fact it’s startling how many say it’s the best thing that happened to them.

People like this refuse to let their circumstances determine their situation. And they aren’t special, they are ordinary people just like you who do special things.

So if you find yourself asking “who’s fault is this?” or “why me?”, just change the question.

Ask yourself “what can I do about this?” and notice how those challenges become opportunities.

This is part 3 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.

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Filed Under: Featured Post Tagged With: creative flow, creativity training, the 12 days of creativeness

How can I help you?

Claude VonStroke (Dirty Bird, USA)

Mike Monday’s process has helped me enormously. I have two record labels, a heavy touring schedule, a wife and two children, and a music production career all running in tandem. There are times when it seems unmanageable and i get lost in a downward spiral that limits my effectiveness as a leader and my ability to be creative in the studio.

Whenever i have a session with Mike we talk it all out and a sense of calm comes over me. i get back to basics and work out all the things in my head that need to get worked out. His process is both calming and therapeutic.

I would also like to add that the additional fact that Mike is a music producer himself and a veteran DJ lends itself to an extra level of trust. I don’t think i would take advice or listen to someone in the same way who was from outside the music industry. In an nutshell I find Mike Monday’s process to be an extremely valuable way to organize and free my chaotic brain to do what it is supposed to be doing.

Johnson Peterson (Yolanda Be Cool)

“I found the time with Mike to be extremely beneficial. His process opened me up to ideas that, even where obvious, I had overlooked or forgotten and I am looking forward to taking them with me to the studio. It was definitely worth it.”

Janelle Palmer (Tutukaka Coast, New Zealand)

“What your course has done for me has been remarkable and I really feel so grateful to you…

Radical is a good word for it! The most unexpected thing I’ve found about the course is the impact it has had on other areas of my life – I was quite surprised about that…

These are definitely transferable skills we are learning here!”

– Janelle Palmer (Tutukaka Coast, New Zealand)

Brett Adams (Los Angeles, California)

“I already think this is one of the greatest decisions I’ve made, and we haven’t even started the curriculum yet.”

Vernon McCarthy (Wellington, New Zealand)

“I just felt inspired to send you a really quick message to say hello and let you know that I am going great guns at the moment.

Managing to get a average of two hours every day producing. This is a huge turn around for me and am loving it. It hasn’t been easy though but I have kept at it.

And much of it has been due to the help and inspiration from yourself, the group and me now actually putting in the work. The online community is such a good thing. Everytime I have gone to have a look I have found something relevant to my thoughts and that has helped me.”

Joe Roberts (London, UK)

“Mike has helped me to start living the truism that it’s not what you use to make music, it’s your ideas.

Those ideas only mean anything when you start putting them down though and that’s what this course has already helped me to start do regularly.

I’ve made more headway in two weeks than I’d managed in a couple of years on my own starting projects, then giving up and starting something new but never seeing them through till completion.”

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