Nine ways to not quit as an indie artist

On the latest episode of the CIAS Podcast (live now) I wanted to talk about a really important topic, NOT quitting. It can be easy to give up on a music journey as it is difficult, takes a lot of time, and has many twists and turns. But, I believe this is a calling and we can’t give up on a calling. Even more than that, if God has put it on our heart to share our music with the world, then it is our duty to give it all we have and press forward.

  One of the most important factors in not giving up is making it real. How do we do that? Well, we actually make our journey a part of our lives. We take our dreams and ideas and put them on paper. We build and foster relationships with others who are doing what we are doing, and we dedicate time, energy and resources to it.

I dive deeper into these 9 ideas and hope they help give clarity on your journey. It is important to remember that we do not have to do all of these things at once. A journey is a series of many steps so we need to take everything one step at a time. You can do this and I am happy to help any way I can.  

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  One of the best ways to not give up on our music journey is by finding community to share it with. For me personally I did not have a community until 2017 and since then my music journey has become a major focus of my life. There are so many great ways to build community online, which is every reason to get connected with others. This community will help keep us accountable because we know that there are others rooting us on and encouraging us along the way.

Take Breaks

  Resting is so important and may seem a little counter-intuitive to keeping going. When we pull away from focusing so much on our journey it will result in better ideas and fresh creativity. This does not mean you should take months off at a time, I am talking more about working regular breaks into your routine. If we find ourselves in a rut, one of the best ways to get out of it is to literally step out of it and come back to it later. This will keep things moving forward and consistently keep us at a high level of output, but only when we take time to input and rest.

Have Realistic Expectations

  One of the biggest roadblocks for artists and songwriters is setting unrealistic expectations. So many get discouraged if their first release does not do as well as they’d hoped and can lead to giving up. By setting realistic expectations it can be a way to keep moving forward in a healthy way. We will all get to where we are headed eventually, but we have to set our sights on attainable things or else we will find our selves disappointed and burned out.

Seek Wise Council

One of the best ways to learn is from others. We all have our own  experiences so getting to learn from others is extremely valuable. True, we do have to make our own decisions at the end of the day BUT finding others to lean on and get wisdom from can help trim off some of the mistakes that we might make without help. When we seek wise council we hit goals faster and that helps us not give up on our music journey.

Keep Learning

  Being a life-long-learner is so crucial to our music journey and life in general. We will never know it all, so continuing to draw inspiration and wisdom from others is key. I try to read at least 1 book per month on top of all of the various youtube, podcast and other content I consume. Even if we don’t use everything we learn, we are getting a fresh perspective on things and that can lead to new ideas and approaches we would not have without learning from others.

Write Down Goals

  We have all heard that writing down our goals greatly increases the chance of achieving them. Taking our thoughts and dreams and putting them on paper makes them real, and once they are real they are attainable. Write down your big goals, middle goals and daily goals and watch what you can accomplish. This also makes them apart of your life, which further makes your music journey real and a part of who you are.

Celebrate The Wins

  Celebrating the wins is crucial to keeping going on our journey. If we don’t celebrate the wins, then hitting our goals just becomes completing tasks, and if that’s all we do then that will eventually kill our joy. Taking the time to celebrate the wins, both big and small, along the way will absolutely keep you going on your music journey.

Be Patient

  Ah, patience, the worst. None of us like it but we all know we need to be patient. Patience is literally a fruit of the Spirit, so if it’s important to God then it is obviously a really important part of our life experience.  Patience does not just mean begrudgingly waiting for “it” to happen, it means to have expectation and joy while we wait for “it” to come. If we can live with this type of patience we will never give up on our journey.

Budget

Last but certainly not least, we need to budget to keep from quitting. One of the main things I hear people talk about is how finances keep them from their music journey. Yes, finances do play a major role in our journey, so budgeting is so important. By dedicating some of our money towards our journey it makes it real and actually gives us an idea of what we are working with as we go. As artists and songwriters we are a business, and businesses have budgets, so we should as well.