What’s up, my friends!
I just wanted to share a quick encouragement…
Sometimes giving up is the best thing that you can do.
That may not actually sound like an encouragement, but stick with me and I will tell you what I mean.
I know it’s a little bit counterintuitive. After all, we always say don’t give up.
But especially when you’re in a season like we’re in right now of reflecting and goal setting, it’s just as important to look at what has not been working, and to give yourself permission to give up on something that hasn’t been serving you well.
The textbook definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
And so for some of y’all, there are things that you’ve been trying that have felt like beating your head against a wall over and over and over again
SO… I want to tell you that it’s okay to give up on some of those things.
Now, I’m not saying that just because something’s hard, you shouldn’t press through…
Songwriting is a hard thing.
It is a numbers game, and you’re going to face a lot of rejection over the course of your career.
So I’m not saying, “just give up on songwriting.”
But I am encouraging you to take inventory of all the things that you’re putting your time and energy into and reflect on whether or not they are serving you.
For instance, there’s a guy that I follow named Pat Flynn. I listen to one of his podcasts – he’s a marketing and business guy – and I’ve learned a lot of stuff from him over the years.
One thing that stood out when listening to his podcast once was hearing him talk about his experience experimenting with TikTok.
During this experiment, he gave himself 30 days to try out TikTok
He posted every day, he was super consistent, and super interactive. He really gave it his best foot forward…
…but it just didn’t work for him.
He felt like for him, TikTok was a waste of time. So after doing the challenge, he decided to quit TikTok and really focus his energy on other platforms.
I’ve also had times when I’ve had to quit things that weren’t necessarily serving me super well.
As you may know, back in 2017 we launched the Full Circle Music Academy.
During that time we had our recording studio going, Full Circle Music Productions, and my songwriting stuff going.
And we also started a publishing company and a record label under Full Circle Music which we kept going strong for five years while Stacey Willbur ran it for us with some amazing writers and artists.
However, there came a time a couple of years ago when we had to make the decision to push a pause on the label and publishing part of our business.
It was a really hard decision to make.
One of the hardest things about a decision like this is investing so much into something just to let it go, which sometimes can lead you to you wanting to keep investing more into it.
This is called the sunk cost fallacy. It’s the idea that when you put a bunch of cost in something – maybe finances, emotions, time – you can feel like you can’t give up on it, even if giving up on that thing might be better for you.
Unfortunately, doing that can hold us back.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is a little bit of pruning to focus on the most important things we’re doing.
In the end it was a crucial decision (and a really hard decision) that we had to make a couple of years ago.
But we had to do this to open up more bandwidth for the things that were working and the things that were really giving me life.
For me, writing songs and producing records is something that always gives me life. And obviously the Academy is a big part of what gives me life too!
Hanging with you guys and interacting in our Song Chasers Community is something that I love doing.
And at the time, the publishing and the label side of the company was not giving me life. It was taking more than it was giving.
So we had to make the decision to cut the cord on those pieces of our business.
And like I said, it was really hard, but it was also the best decision that we could have made at the moment.
So what I want you to do, as you’re thinking back on this last year and goal setting for the next year, is to keep in mind the information I just shared.
Reflect back over the last 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, and 36 months. Look at all the activities that you’ve done.
Is there something that you need to give up on?
Is there something that you’ve invested a lot into that just isn’t giving you life like you thought it would?
Is there something that you just need to say, okay, I tried, and I need to give up on this?
After that, if you’ve identified some things, I want to give you permission to cut ties with the things that aren’t serving you in life.
You don’t have to succeed at every single thing that you do in life, and there are going to be some things that you just got to cut the cord on.
It may not even be music related. It may be things that are personal. You may have relationships that you need to give up on. I know that sounds a little harsh, but sometimes that’s exactly what we need to do.
Sometimes it’s a hobby or something that’s just draining us of being able to focus on the things that we love. Maybe it’s Netflix. Maybe it’s eating junk food.
I don’t know what it is, but there’s usually something in our life that we need to quit or give up on.
So overall, as you’re reflecting on this last year, I just want to give you permission to recognize both what’s working and what’s not working.
Because giving up on certain things that aren’t serving you can actually help you!
Anyways, it’s been great to be back in the room making music over the last week, and I hope you guys and gals out there are having a strong start to your 2023.
It’s going to be an incredible year. I feel it, and I’m super excited for you!!
I’d also love your thoughts! Did any of this resonate with you? Have you had to give up on something in the past or feel like you’re supposed to give up something now?
Feel free to comment on this post below!
Have a good one!