Music is a hobby for most producers I know, but often frustrating due to the amount of effort you put into it versus the results that you get. Therefore, here are four things to help you regain your motivation and stop questioning if you should stop making music…
4 THOUGHTS FROM ME
1. If you’re not having fun and not feeling motivated about your music, you need to make some drastic changes. Back in 2019, I hit rock bottom when it comes to motivation toward my music. I called a friend to ask if I should quit, but I decided to try a new genre before quitting after going to a party to have some fun, and that was what saved leaving my dream unfulfilled of making music professionally. When you’re not feeling motivated about something in your life, that means that what you’ve been doing is no longer working anymore to motivate you, and you need to change your habits if you want to keep on doing it. Consider making a completely different genre, so if you’re techno, consider making house music, and vice versa. Or, try producing outside of your studio. Why? Well, that will introduce a new set of challenges and scenarios to your music that will help you open your mind and get out of the old habits that are no longer motivating, and with new challenges will come new approaches that could bring your motivation back to making music. In addition, this will bring you new techniques and ideas, that could later boost your creativity in your main genre, which can make it even more exciting, and so on. Therefore, if you’re in a motivation rut, it’s time to start trying new stuff, just for fun, as your old stuff is not motivating you anymore.
2. Don’t let a roadblock trigger your self-doubt and knock your motivation down. The biggest reason why I see producers stop making music or have their motivation shaken is that they stumble upon a problem and don’t know how to get over it, and that knocks them down. Maybe you sent a song that you really believed in to a label and got a ‘no’, or you got bad feedback on it. Or, maybe you’re having mixing problems, but you don’t know how to solve them so you keep making the same mistakes and the feeling of being stuck just drains you. First of all, this doesn’t mean that you suck, or that all your music WILL suck in the future, it only means that, AT THE MOMENT, there’s still more to learn. Learn what you need to do and get it done! Second, when you get sick and you’re not healing, you go to the doctor, right? Well, music is the same… Instead, try to find someone that can help unstick you, and learning how to solve this problem can bring all the fun back to your music. When you feel you hit a problem, use it as fuel to motivate you to get better and develop, and not as a reason to quit.
3. Take a break and go do something else. The BEST thing to do when you’re not feeling something is just to give it a rest. If you really want it, it will come back eventually. Forcing something you’re unhappy with, especially when it’s a hobby, will only make it more unpleasant, which will drain your motivation even further. That’s why, as mentioned, changing your genre could be a way to ‘take a break’ from your current habits while still keeping yourself active with music and that can really lift you up as it did to me. But, if you’re not even feeling like producing, go have some fun, and try again next week. Go for a walk and listen to new music on Spotify. Go to a party and take notice of what kind of music excites you. Take a break from what you’re used to doing and start searching for where you will go next. Take the time to experiment and ONLY do what excites you, so you can fill yourself with motivation and willpower, which will help you regain the motivation to produce.
4. Assign yourself a major, but achievable, goal to get your motivation back to where it needs to be. Sometimes, the lack of purpose makes you wonder what and why you’re making music in the first place, so it needs to be very clear what is the purpose of music in your life and why you make music. If you understand that this will help you, then restart by creating some goals for yourself so you could then start fighting for and pursuing something throughout your journey. That’s a bit of what Simon Sinek says in his book ‘Start With Why’… When you have a strong reason to make music and when you have a strong reason to keep on making music, roadblocks, creative ruts and any fallback in your career will be just another thing you’ll need to overcome, and not a reason to doubt yourself. That’s why having goals that you really want to achieve will help you develop more motivation as they will develop a stronger ‘WHY’ for your career, and that essentially bulletproofs any possible setback you may have. Therefore, after reading this email, reply to me with 5 things you want to achieve this year and try to break them into smaller doable tasks so you can then start working to achieve them. Or, just join our discord and write in our ‘2023 goals’ channel your 5 goals over there!
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
What are other reasons why you could quit, and how to overcome them?
1. Not achieving the quality in your songs that you want? Write down 5 things you need to develop in your music, and make sure that at least 3 of them will see some progress in your next song. Keep on repeating this until you’re happy.
2. Not being able to sign your songs to your dream labels? Stop focusing on what you don’t control (getting signed), and focus on what you can control (your music). Lastly, read this post on why you shouldn’t produce with labels in your mind.
3. I don’t have time for it… Considering the hours you sleep and your work, how many free hours do you have left in your week? If you have more than 20 free hours per week of free time, don’t you have 30 min per day to produce? If the answer is no, my question is it a matter of time or are you covering motivation issues with your lack of time?
