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This is part 12 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”.
By now you’ll have realised the massive impact finding your creative flow will have on the quantity and quality of your music and your enjoyment in making it. And to help you get you there I’ve focused on your mental approach to making music.
I’ve focused on this because with the right mindset not only will you find creative flow more often, but you will succeed. And without it you won’t.
It’s astounding that while in almost every other subject – business, leadership, selling, sport, weight loss, dating – you name it, there is a wealth of wisdom on how to use your mind to create success, but in music production virtually none.
Instead, our community is obsessed with how to compress this or how to eq that, what equipment we need before we can do anything, what the specific steps are to write a hit…and so it goes on.
We are obsessed with information and ignore wisdom.
But how you think about what you do and how you do what you do is as important as what you do. And focusing on what you do alone can lead to frustrating months, years or even decades of chasing your tail.
Having said that, I don’t want to suggest in any way that you spend all your time simply thinking and dreaming. For all I have said has no meaning, point, or purpose unless you take action.
Some “success gurus” suggest that simply by thinking and desiring something enough, you’ll somehow get it. I am not one of them.
Everything I’ve written to this point is to get you to do, and continue to do, the one thing that will move you forward.
TAKE ACTION.
Now there are some reasons why you might think you find this challenging. It’s time for some tough talking…
The worst decision you can make is no decision.
By making no decision, you are making a decision. A decision to let external forces determine what happens. This is the worst decision you can make. It’s the polar opposite of taking responsibility.
Don’t sweat it. Go with your gut instinct, listen to your intuition and take action.
This point is so important that I’ll leave it to someone more qualified than I emphasise the point:
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” – Theodore Roosevelt
No matter what they might say, everyone fears criticism.
I fear it when I write these posts. Whenever you put yourself “out there” as soon as you make an impact you will attract criticism. Criticism is a sign you’re doing something important.
You wouldn’t believe a some of the things I’ve been called since starting this blog. And I’m not going to lie to you and say “I don’t care”. I’m human, and being the subject of criticism is unpleasant (particularly when it’s offensive).
But have you noticed that when you read a bad comment, review or criticism of someone else’s work, you end up drawing conclusions about the critic more than the subject of their criticism?
I certainly do.
And anyway, what exactly are you scared of? What’s the worst that could happen?
Asking yourself the right questions. And I ask myself these questions every time I get scared or freaked out. What’s worse? The odd criticism here and there? Or inaction?
Either the criticism will be valid and useful or you will disagree with it. And if it’s insulting just feel sorry for the critic. Either way, you’re giving them power if they stop you from taking action.
(By the way, most people are polite, encouraging, awesome and more than make up for the occasional weirdo.)
Fear is a completely natural part of doing something to your best. Those who are successful acknowledge the fear and do it anyway.
Once again, I’ll let Teddy do the talking:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt
I’ve already talked about this elsewhere, but here’s the short version:
If you don’t stop you don’t fail.
If making music was important enough to you, you would find the time.
It’s about priorities. You will always find the time to do things that are important to you.
This is the reason I asked you to decide what you want and connect with your purpose. If you have completed those steps your ideal outcome should mean making music has jumped the top of your list of priorities.
If it hasn’t, maybe it’s not for you. In that case, stop beating yourself up about it!
If it has – make time and take action.
Both of these are excuses, pure and simple.
Many, many great musicians have become great by starting with no “knowledge” and very little equipment.
Even if you have an old beat up laptop, you will already have more power at your fingertips than most musicians in the history of music.
And unless you are tone deaf or don’t possess ears and a brain, you already have enough knowledge to make great music.
Nuff said. Take action.
There is no better way to ensure you take action than by finding someone who will point you in the right direction, be a sounding board, a model, and hold you accountable.
I thought for many years that I could do it all alone. I was wrong.
I now have a number of mentors who I often turn to for help in many different ways.
Whether it be a partner, manager, agent, label guy, teacher or coach – a great mentor will inspire you, push you, and be there for you when the going get tough.
In just 12 posts, it wasn’t possible to teach you everything.
And at the beginning, by getting you to think of your ideal future I’m aware that despite the last post on goals and planning, the enormity of what you want to achieve might be causing you to wonder what to do next.
The compelling future that you’re now working towards might seem distant and out of reach, but just know that all your musical heroes have been exactly where you are now.
Trust that you know what to do. Because you do. It might be scary, it might be a challenge, but isn’t it more scary to imagine living the rest of your life wondering “what if”?
Break down your overall goal into smaller sub-goals until they become doable but challenging.
Then pick one. If you’re wondering which one to pick, just ask yourself which one seems right. Relax. Ask the right question, and the answer will come.
Then – take action.
Ok, I think you might have got the point now. You must take action!!!
Go Forth. Prosper. Rock it. The world needs your music…
Day 0 – My aims with this series and for you this year.
Day 1 – How to make lightning fast creative decisions.
Day 2 – Build your desire by creating your compelling future.
Day 3 – The most common creativity killing mistake music producers make.
Day 4 – Forget procrastination and make decisions easily when you take this simple step.
Day 5 – How the things you think move you forward might be doing the opposite.
Day 6 – The unusual step you must take to become a successful music producer.
Day 7 – Change a few simple words and do more in less time with better results.
Day 8 – What’s the vital ingredient that’s missing from your work?
Day 9 – The source of all distractions and how to neutralise it for good.
Day 10 – How to finish up to 5 times more music in the same time by thinking differently.
Day 11 – How to ensure that every goal propels you towards creative flow.
Day 12 – What you must do next.
This is part 12 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”.
This is part 11 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”.
I know that some creative types hate the idea of “goals”. Some even dislike the word. If you do, think of them as “outcomes” or “objectives”.
(I’m going to use “goals” here, because it’s much easier to type!)
While rigid lists of goals might work for you, they don’t work for everyone. I certainly don’t insist that my clients keep a strict and constantly updated goal list for every area of their life.
But psychology professor Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (who wrote the book on Flow and who has studied hundreds of people in all walks of life who experience flow) found that they all have challenging goals of their own choosing.
And after analysing my creative career, although I didn’t refer to them as “goals”, just “stuff I wanted to finish”, when I had “stuff I wanted to finish” I was more inspired, worked harder and did better work.
It’s clear that goals, aims, outcomes or objectives are important.
But the traditional view of a good goal doesn’t address some essential characteristics which will cause you to experience creative flow.
You’ve probably heard the acronym “SMART” (Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Recorded, Time bound – or some variation of that). While doing my coaching diploma it was drummed into me that these elements were what made a good, motivating goal for a coaching client.
But as I coach creative people who want to get into that precious peak state of creative flow, I’ve always felt that SMART somehow misses the mark.
So I came up with my own acronym. A goal that will help you find flow will be:
C.R.E.A.T.I.V.E.
Challenging. Recorded. Explicit. Affirmative. Time-based. Inspiring. Valuable. Enjoyable.
A good CREATIVE goal will be challenging enough to stimulate you but not so challenging that you get discouraged and run the risk of giving up.
Now I recognise that finding that fine line between too challenging and too easy can be a challenge in itself! I spend a significant part of the coaching process helping my clients find that fine line.
But once you start to walk it, you won’t look back.
Experiment with setting yourself tough challenges. I would always err on the side of “too challenging”, because I believe that most people underestimate their potential…
A goal that isn’t recorded is a dream.
Write your goals down, or type them into your computer or phone. Look at them daily or even better, rewrite them every day. I have found that when I do this I naturally make my goals my priorities, and don’t get so easily distracted.
And if you can, find someone who you can speak to about your goals. Simply the act of telling someone else will mean you’re accountable to them and much more likely to take action.
When you have an explicit goal, you’ll be able to say “I’ve achieved it”.
It will be clearly defined. Even better if it’s something you can measure e.g. the number or tracks you want to finish. And if it’s something you can’t measure, then create a way of measuring it.
For instance, some of my clients want to finish more music, but have difficulties due to lack of confidence.
So first I get them to make their overall goal explicit.
Client: “I will finish 2 tracks a month for the next 3 months.”
But in order to achieve their overall goal they need to increase their confidence. This is a smaller “sub-goal” which I ask them to make explicit:
Me: “On a scale of 1-10 how confident are you now?”
Client: “About a 4.”
Me: “Where would you have to be on that scale to allow you to finish 2 tracks a month?”
Client: “I think probably a 7 or 8.”
(So their sub-goal is to get from a confidence level of 4 to a 7.)
Then to find out what the first step would be:
Me: “What has to happen to get your confidence from it’s current 4 to a 5?”
So by breaking down the overall goal into smaller sub-goals, and making what isn’t well defined into something explicit, they’ll know when they’ve achieved each step and how much closer they are to their overall goal.
Go through a similar process yourself with your goals. You’ll be much more excited and motivated to take action.
I’m surprised at how many new coaching clients have no problem telling me what they don’t want, but find it almost impossible to tell me what they do want.
It’s not possible to achieve something you don’t want because a/ it might happen in the future or b/ you might do it in the future.
And by stating what you don’t want, “I want to stop procrastinating” you are focusing on it. By constantly referring to your procrastination you are much more likely to continue procrastinating.
It’s more effective to say what you want: “I will focus all my attention on producing music for 30 minutes every day until the end of the month.”
Give yourself a deadline.
You might find this difficult. But if you can put a time limit on each goal it will be less likely to drag on.
And if you’ve set a deadline you can hit, you’ve agreed it with someone else and you’ve recorded it, you will be in a position where you’re highly likely to achieve it.
This is a crucial and unique component of a creative flow goal.
You must make sure that every goal is connected to your purpose.
When your goals are “on purpose”, you will be inspired by them and even if they are challenging, you’ll have little problem achieving them.
Whether you’re thinking about your “overall goal” (what you want) or the smaller “sub-goals” (what you need to achieve to get there), if they are to propel you towards creative flow, they must be valuable to you.
Your overall goal must be something you value above almost everything else. You have to make sure it’s something you really want.
And you measure any sub-goal’s value by asking whether it’s the best step to take towards your overall goal.
This isn’t mentioned in any traditional goal setting methodology that I’ve found, but is essential to you if you want to experience creative flow more often.
Your goals must be inherently enjoyable, or you must work out how to enjoy them.
Because while your flow state will create enjoyment, enjoying what you’re doing also has the potential to activate your flow state.
Now I’m sure there will be some goals that you won’t think are inherently enjoyable. But by thinking creatively there are always ways of making them enjoyable.
I know that’s a lot of letters!
So if I had to pick the most important, funnily enough they wouldn’t be the ones related to SMART. Certainly not for creative people.
I believe that while the others are useful, in order to experience creative flow the absolutely essential qualities of a goal are Challenging, Inspiring, Valuable and Enjoyable.
(They don’t make a cool acronym though. Somehow VICE doesn’t quite cut it…)
I have to confess that I have had some problems with goal setting in my own life.
I thought they might be demotivating if I didn’t achieve them. I also worried that they’d be restrictive. When that inspiration struck I’d want to follow where it led rather than staying on track with my chosen goal.
But according to my personal experience, what I have learnt from my clients, and the available academic research, CREATIVE goals won’t stifle your inspiration, they’ll stimulate it.
When I coach musicians, discovering what motivates and excites them around goal setting is one of the most important parts of the coaching process. Not only do they achieve more, but they learn how to achieve more in the future.
But I’ve found that there are as many ways of approaching goals as there are clients, what motivates one will discourage another.
And while setting CREATIVE goals should mean you don’t feel restricted or discouraged, here’s my top 4 tips which have helped many of my clients set goals.
Use a mind map to record your goals instead of those boring lists!
Place your overall aim in the middle of the mind map and then create “thought bubbles” around it for the smaller sub goals and actions.
This works particularly well if you are a visual thinker, and can be a more creative way of thinking about goals.
There’s lots of expensive mind map software around, but I use Freemind. It’s open source, free and awesome.
If you know what you want and be before you do, this should be a snap.
An unusual but effective way of identifying sub-goals is to imagine yourself having already achieved your overall goal. Once you are “there”, write down all the things you have done to get there.
This is an imaginative way of both setting smaller sub-goals and planning actions. It works particularly well for creative minds. Instead of planning from the place you are now, you’re planning from the place you want to be.
Because you’re using your imagination to put yourself in the position of having achieved your goal, you’ll be more excited and motivated.
You’ll also find that you anticipate the obstacles you might face and more effectively work out ways you might get around, through, over or under them.
I got this from Stephen R Covey, author of the classic “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People” (which if you’re interested in personal development you must read).
When you plan, decide what you want to do in a week, not in a day.
This works excellently for creative pursuits as it simply and neatly avoids the potential for your goals to become restrictive. It also allows you time and space to follow your inspiration, and for life to get in the way.
Most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a week. By working in weeks, you’re less likely to get discouraged and demotivated.
You change. Other people change. The world changes.
In a very real sense we are change. And while setting CREATIVE goals is important, being flexible when using them is more important.
I always put following my inspiration when it strikes before hitting a goal on deadline. This isn’t aimlessly drifting, waiting for inspiration to strike, and ignoring your goals, it’s being aware of your goals but flexible in your approach to them.
Your goals will change. Constantly looking at them and rewriting them will mean they change organically over time. That’s to be expected, in fact that’s healthy.
Flexibility is key to a successful creative career.
It seems contradictory that by choosing a course of action, you can be more flexible in the actions you take. But by setting your CREATIVE goals carefully, you will feel more comfortable about altering them.
This is part 11 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”.
This is part 10 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”.
You’re working on a killer tune.
You’re fired up. The ideas are flowing and it’s effortless. You have complete belief in yourself and what you’re doing.
You start to think that this could be the one, the hit that takes your career to a new level. You keep playing it over and over and almost can’t believe you did it. It’s that good.
Isn’t this why you got into music in the first place?
As you tweak and tinker the doubts start to creep in. Slowly at first, then quicker your raw excitement and energy dissipate.
You ignore it and work even harder. You turn off your phone and the internet in order to fully focus. You think that if you stop working that feeling will be gone, lost forever.
You use all the willpower, mental stamina and self motivation to get it back. But like a dream that disappears as you wake, the energy, excitement and possibility fade.
Before long you’re bored and frustrated.
If you’re honest you’re thoroughly sick of it. What was a joy is now a slog and you can’t get it right or move forward.
Eventually you can hardly bear to listen to it again and can only hear things you don’t like, made worse by the memory of how good you thought it could be. It becomes yet another unfinished tune to add to your growing scrapheap.
Is this a familiar story?
The track didn’t change much between loving it and hating it.
You know this because all you did for the last few hours was tweak it, making it just that bit better.
How can you feel so differently about what is essentially the same piece of music?
You can because you lost momentum.
I have nearly a whole 1TB hard drive full of unfinished tunes where I lost momentum. It’s like my own personal graveyard of unfulfilled hopes and dreams!
Even though I could be described as a prolific producer, just imagine what I could have done if I’d finished even a fraction of that unfinished music. And I hate to think of the golden ideas (maybe even hits) that are languishing on that machine.
Spending more time on a tune doesn’t make it better.
And what’s so much more important than attaining perfection (or anything near it) is your creative momentum.
Do what is necessary, spend less time doing more and build momentum.
If you’re stuck or finding it hard going, focus on your momentum first. Don’t worry about how good what you’re doing is. Gradually you’ll start to finish more which will build your confidence. This confidence will allow you to do yet more fast which will then create more momentum. A virtuous cycle.
And even if you’re not stuck, if you maintain and build your momentum you will eventually reach what I call “escape velocity”.
This has happened to me a few times in my career, and it’s incredibly exhilarating.
At this point the process starts to becomes almost effortless. When you get to this point, and certainly if you’ve also completed the other steps I’ve suggested in this series, you will be experiencing creative flow on a regular basis.
This is why I believe that building momentum is the key to an enjoyable and successful career as a music producer. Not trying to be perfect. Perfectionism will kill your momentum. If you try to make every track perfect you’ll stall, crash and have to continually start all over again.
(And anyway “perfect” is boring, dull and lifeless. Isn’t it the rough edges that give your music beauty, soul and life?)
A way of thinking that can help you gain momentum is the 80/20 principle.
It’s an anti time-management idea. Instead of making incremental improvements in your productivity, you work out the value you’re creating in relation to the effort you’re expending.
Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian Economist who in 1906 found that in Italy 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the population. And when he conducted a survey of other countries he found a broadly similar distribution applies. He then also observed that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas! Strange but true…
Since then, this imbalance has also been found in many other areas of life. In business, 80% of sales usually come from 20% of customers. At home you’ll tend to wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time. And I’ll bet you listen to 20% (or less) of your music collection for 80% (or more) of the time.
What’s important here isn’t the exact 80 or 20 numbers but the general principle that most of the results from an activity come from a small part of the effort.
So let’s apply it to music production. You create 80% of the “value” (or maybe a better word might be “quality”) in your music from only 20% of your effort. Or in other words you expend 80% of your effort doing stuff which only yields 20% of the results!
Shocking isn’t it? How can it be true?
But if you analysed it honestly I’ll bet you’ll find that a majority of your effort is spent doing tasks which have a minimal effect on your music.
Avoid doing or cut down significantly that 80% attempting to achieve that final 20%.
In music production, by shooting for that last 20% you’ll rarely get it. You’re also likely to lose what was great about the original vibe and you’ll run the very real risk of losing your momentum. A surefire inspiration killer.
And imagine what impact doing 5 times more in the same time will have on your life!
(If you want to learn more about the 80/20 principle read “The 80/20 Principle” by Richard Koch. It’s mainly a business book, but it changed the way I thought about my life and work.)
I’m not advocating sloppiness or laziness. And you might find it challenging to work out what the 20% is in what you that creates the 80% and what is superfluous.
Start by asking yourself “where does most of the value lie in my creative process?” As I’ve said before, just asking the right question will usually bring an answer if you’re open to it.
Of course, the simplest course of action would be make an effort to complete your music in 1/5th of the time. Why not try it?
But however you apply it, finish it, ship it, move on. Finish it, ship it, move on. Finish it, ship it, move on. Make this your mantra.
This is part 10 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”.
This is part 8 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”.
Everyone who has experienced creative flow will tell you that it is enjoyable and exhilarating. My experiences of creative flow have been amongst the most enjoyable of my life.
And like the other features of creative flow, it’s a two way street.
Not only will “being inspired” produce an enjoyable and exhilarating experience, enjoyment and exhilaration will produce conditions where inspiration happens.
So how do you create conditions for enjoyment?
Of course I’m not suggesting for a second that you’ll find reading my posts the most enjoyable experiences of your life! Far from it.
But by taking the steps I’ve outlined you’ll start to enjoy your creative process be more likely to experience creative flow.
Working towards a desirable outcome is an enjoyable activity.
Working for a compelling purpose is enjoyable.
Taking responsibility for your situation is empowering and inherently enjoyable.
Learning, discovering and figuring stuff out by doing is much more rewarding and enjoyable than being taught.
Writing music from a position of strength (being who you want to be) is much more enjoyable than writing it from a position of weakness (being who you perceive you are).
And thinking about your process as an enjoyable activity, not as a struggle, is enjoyable (obviously).
But taking steps to enhance your enjoyment is an end in itself.
This is your choice.
1/ Choose to produce the music you love, not what fashion demands.
By writing music that you love, your music will shine and your audience will find you. It will be easier, you’ll produce more quicker and at a higher quality than if you just make what is in fashion at the time.
So if you love to produce african nose flute techno, go ahead.
2/ Choose to do more of the work you love.
If you write jingles or commercials for other people and have been meaning to write more of your own music that you love – make the time.
If you’ve been doing loads of remixes for other people and haven’t been able to work on that album – make the time.
You might lose a little income at first, but by doing more of what you enjoy you’ll be invigorating yourself and your creative process. By doing this you’ll be extending and increasing your ability to write music to order.
3/ Choose to make music (or whatever you enjoy) your life
If you’re successful in a career that you don’t love, just imagine how much more you could achieve if you do what you love.
There are always going to be certain tasks which you enjoy more than others within the creative process.
But you make even these tasks more enjoyable by being creative about it.
I used to hate starting work on the arrangement.
So instead of schlepping through a basic arrangement by copying and pasting parts in Logic, I used Ableton and recorded my basic arrangement in live.
Voila! What was the most dreaded became my favourite part of the process.
If you can’t find a way to enjoy a certain part of the process, have you thought about outsourcing it to someone who does?
Many producers already do this by employing an engineer to do the mixdown.
But if you can’t afford an engineer how about a collaboration? I’ve often thought about a partnership where each person was responsible for a different parts of the process.
One of the major “ahas” I’ve had from my training as a coach and NLP Practitioner is that by focusing on particular parts of your experience it is possible to enjoy almost any task.
Although this is a very individual process and varies wildly from person to person, I’ve had success helping my clients to find enjoyment in what they do.
But whether you do it by doing what you love, loving what you do, finding a way to love what you naturally don’t, or a combination of all three – it is essential that you learn to enjoy it.
Most assume that doing “hard work” is the only route to success. This misses the mark.
Because when you enjoy it, your route to success won’t feel hard or like work.
This is part 8 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”.