Welcome to the second part of 5x'ing Your Home Studio Success.
Yesterday we talked about setting a strategy based on your goals. If you didn't read that part, check it out here before you continue.
If you're following along, you already have your goal broken down into three parts:
- Your finish line
- Your halfway point
- Your starting action
Part 2 - Habits and Routine
Today we're going to talk about the success of showing up. You can achieve anything you want as long as you continuously show up to work on moving yourself closer to your goal.
Make your routine a non-negotiable habit in your life, even if you don't feel like it. It's the people who show up, especially when they don't feel like it, that succeed. The easiest thing in the world is to give into procrastination. And when you procrastinate you might start comparing yourself to somebody more successful than you and think:
This person has done [Something Insane That You Think You Can't Do]. I could never do that.
But the problem with "Comparison Syndrome" is that you're comparing yourself to a future version of somebody else's success. They didn't just wake up one day with six albums under their belt, a Grammy for best mixing engineer and 27 best-selling books. I guarantee that when that person started their career, they were just as insecure about their work as you are today.
A few years ago I set myself a goal of writing books. I was aiming for 5 - 10 overall, but my goal was to finish one. To help me reach that goal, I created a habit around writing every day. Today, I've written six books that I've either released as stand-alone books, like Step By Step Mixing, or as a part of a more extensive course, like EQ
Strategies. I didn’t just wave a magic wand. It took a lot of effort, and some serious self-doubt as well.
Did I miss a day here or there on occasion? You bet.
Did I feel like writing every time I sat down to do it? Not at all.
Could I have felt sorry for myself every time I compared myself to established authors and educators? Yes, and I probably did on occasion. But what good would it do?
The real question is:
Do I love the feeling of accomplishing my goals over the years with every new book project? A hundred times YES!
(In case you're wondering, my goal is still to "Write Books." It's just the subject matter that changes, not the habit).
Negatively comparing yourself to someone more successful will only hurt your confidence. Instead, think about what you can accomplish if you put in the effort to show up for success every day until you reach your goal.
Gary Keller wrote, in The One Thing:
“When you see someone who has a lot of knowledge, they learned it over time. When you see someone who has a lot of skills, they developed them over time. When you see someone who has done a lot, they accomplished it over time. When you see someone who has a lot of money, they earned it over time. The key is over time.”
Even if you haven't started on your project yet, you still have the power of time on your side. How are you going to create a habit around your goals?
Find Your Success Habit
Go back to your "Definition of Success" I talked about yesterday. Think about the goal you want to achieve next year and ask yourself:
What is the one thing that if I were to do repeatedly, would move me closer to that goal?
It'll be different depending on what your goal is, but here are some examples to get you thinking.
- Is it mixing songs?
- Is it taking an hour out of every day to write?
- Is it taking an hour out of every day to write songs?
- Is it practicing your instrument to get better so you can join a band?
The trick to creating a habit around accomplishing your goal is to break it down into small, manageable chunks. Let’s take a big goal like "Releasing an Album." Think of everything that goes into producing your record while still maintaining your music career. Break it down into small chunks that you can manage.
Your breakdown might look something like this:
