Hey friends!
It’s Riley here, the community manager of our songwriting community, Song Chasers, and today I wanted to encourage you.
A few months ago in Song Chasers, we talked all about the fundamentals of being a musician and a songwriter.
I found that everything we talked about really trickled back to one idea:
PRACTICE.
Now, I know that practice isn’t the most glamorous topic to talk about… and it isn’t always fun to do either.
But in anything we do in life… exercising, singing, playing an instrument… and yes, songwriting, practice is SO important.
It’s by practicing that we build habits.
It’s by doing something over and over again that the skills we long for become muscle memory.
I think it’s easy to look at successful people in the music industry and assume that one day success just “happened” to them.
In reality, success takes years of work and practice, but we often don’t see that, and so we sit around waiting for success to find us or to have our “breakthrough moment.”
But unfortunately, breakthroughs do not happen spontaneously.
I’ve been reading a book called The Mountain Is You, and I love how the author puts this:
“A mind-blowing, singular breakthrough is not what changes your life. A microshift is. Breakthroughs are what happen after hours, days, and years of the same mundane, monotonous work.”– Brianna Weist
A micro shift is a a tiny increment of change in your day-to-day life, and it’s micro shifts that help you create the life you are trying to achieve.
Now I want to highlight the phrase “day-to-day.”
Why?
Because I think it can be easy to know that we should practice but to find ourselves putting it off anyways.
I think sometimes we never get to doing something day-to-day simply because we never pick a day to start.
How often have you told yourself that you’ll work on something tomorrow or next week and then found months or even years go by?
I know I have, and I know I’m not alone.
So this is my encouragement to get your reps in TODAY.
Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next year.
Today
>> Write the song.
>> Practice the guitar riff.
>> Do the vocal exercise.
>> Build the habits.
>> Make the micro shifts.
And let me know what you’re doing! I’d love to hear what habits you’re working on building and encourage you in them!
Again, it’s not about making a huge change, it’s about starting to create the little habits that will ultimately turn into your long term success 🙂
You got this!
P.S. If you want to join the Song Chasers Community, check it out here!