The Summer Olympic Games are over, and in them, the highest-performing athletes in the world compete for a medal in their sport. Along with that, the Olympics teaches us a lot of other things, and here are a few things I remember every 4 years that I’d like to share with you:
4 THOUGHTS FROM ME
1. Be willing to do what most are not willing to.
Only a really small percentage of the people in the world have Olympic medals and even fewer people have gold medals, and that is because winning them requires a lot. For us producers, it’s almost the same.
Regardless if you want to be a major touring artist or not, finishing and releasing a song requires a lot of effort, practice, and sacrifices, which grow even further depending on what you want to achieve with your music. So, for you to achieve what you want, you need to:
- Learn how to be comfortable with yourself and your art. Athletes are comfortable with who they are, and their abilities, and find confidence in themselves, and since most of your production work will be done alone, in your studio, sometimes it can be tough because it feels lonely, so you must learn how to enjoy yourself and your art more than almost anything as this is what will keep make you joyful and motivated about it, even when it feels lonely and soul-crushing because not all practice sessions are medal-worthy;
- Surround yourself with people who motivate you to keep on going. Athletes are part of a team, even if they compete in individual events, so you will need a team of friends, partners, mentors, and other producers who will support you mentally along your journey;
- Be part of a community of like-minded people. Athletes train with other athletes, even if they’re not from the same country or team since that makes your work feel less lonely as you can share your struggles with like-minded people, and also helps you see that everyone goes through the same issues as you do, which makes the learning process less frustrating and easier to go through since you can always ask your community for help;
- Find a Coach/Mentor (even if on Youtube). No high-performance athlete can do it all without a coach or a mentor, so finding someone who can guide you through your journey will make it easier, faster, and less lonely for you;
- Be willing to do what most producers are not willing to, just like the gold medal-winning athletes. Work more hours; more efficiently; Practice more; Have more mentoring sessions, etc. For you to be extraordinary, you need to be willing to do extraordinary work as well!
2. Learn how to dust yourself from your fallbacks and come back stronger.
Many of the biggest prodigies didn’t win in their first Olympics, but that made them stronger rather than weaker. Big artists, like winning athletes, face rejections and fallbacks in their careers as opportunities to learn and grow rather than a moment to stop and quit, but, for that, you need a few shifts in your mindset:
- Make rejections motivate you instead of taking you away from your goal. When you face a setback, take ownership, debug it, and learn from it. Understand why it happened, change your path, and make adjustments if needed. For example, if a label rejects you, ask for feedback from friends or the label, and learn from it so you don’t repeat for the next song;
- Find alternative routes for your goals instead of changing them or just making them smaller. For example, if a high-tier label is not accepting your demos, consider sending them somewhere else until you build a portfolio that can attract that high-tier label. The goal is still the same, but you’re adjusting your path instead to get small wins that could lead you to your main goal;
- Appreciate your efforts. Many athletes are happy as f*** after coming in fourth, fifth, or even just by participating in the Olympics because it crowns all the effort they have put in over the years. With every setback, you should appreciate that many are not even trying, and if you’re taking action to move forward, this setback only made you stronger
3. Discover your limits and know when to stop and take some time away.
In the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, in 2021, Simone Biles, expected to win most of the women’s gymnastics gold medals, instead surprised the world and decided not to compete while she was already in Tokyo and set to compete. Why? Anxiety crippled her to the point that she couldn’t perform, and so she decided to quit the Olympics.
As producers, we’re expected to constantly deliver quality songs, but sometimes you’re just not in the zone. All you do doesn’t sound good, or you just don’t have time since work has caught up, so what do you do? You beat yourself even harder for not being able to work, which sometimes just makes things worse, deepening your block and resentment even further, sometimes to irreversible points.
Sounds familiar? Instead, this is what you should do:
- If you’re in an off moment, give yourself time to recover. It’s not by force that you’ll recover your flow, but by slowly working towards it. Remember, if a 4-time gold medalist, in 2021, gave herself time to recover, so can you, and that and that recovery is what can eventually put you back on track for more, just like Simone who finished with additional Gold medals in France 4 years after facing anxiety;
- Allow yourself to sound bad. If you’re in a rut, and things are not working out for you, allow yourself to sound bad. We sometimes beat ourselves up even harder for not sounding perfect when we go back to music, but you should praise yourself instead for just doing the work, and your flow state will come as you start feeling calmer and better about working again;
- Stay in your comfort zone. When you can’t think outside the box, thinking inside the box can be crucial to regaining your confidence, so do what is safe and what you know you can do. That’s what eventually will make you happy and confident to think outside the box again.
4. Make practice a habit for you.
I once attended an interview with Michael Phelps, the world’s biggest Olympic winner with 23 gold medals and 28 total medals, and the one thing I remember him saying is: “Every day I was in the pool, whether I was sick, whether I didn’t want to, or whatever. Especially during the days that I didn’t want to swim, these are the days that made the most difference because most people would not swim, but my will to win made me go swimming.”
That’s the mentality that we should have as producers. Here are a few things you can do:
- Practice every day that you can, even if it’s for 20-30 minutes. When you make producing a habit, it makes it easier to keep things in flow and harder for you to go into writer’s block. For that, I highly recommend ‘gamefying” this habit by challenging you to produce xx days straight. Make sure to track it with an app or somewhere visual like a notepad, and often that visual reminder that you have a habit to follow and a streak to continue is what will make go make some music;
- Make practicing what you’re weak at a habit. I used to struggle a LOT with catchy leads (composition, not sound design), and that was killing my motivation, so I vowed to study how to make leads and copied more than 50 song leads to understand what the PROs were doing. That led me to be more comfortable with leads nowadays and I do this exercise every time that I’m feeling like I’m lacking creativity. Therefore, pick the one skill that you’re lacking, say Sound Design, and go recreate synths to understand synthesis until you’re comfortable with it.
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
What else can we learn from these Summer Olympics?
1. Learn how to properly manage your energy:
As music is a long long run, like a Marathon, you need to be able to keep your energy and your excitement about music always high, and this is what will make you win in such a long task.
2. Win and lose with dignity.
Whether you just got signed to your dream label, or got rejected constantly, that doesn’t give you the right to lose respect with other producers, other A&Rs, etc. Keep your head high, and especially when you lose, learn how to appreciate those who win.
3. Block out the noise.
Some skating competitors would get themselves in the zone by listening to their favorite songs and also by blocking out the noise to avoid any anxiety. These are two really good exercises to get you excited and pumped to when you need to perform, and also to enhance your focus in the task at hand!
