Day Dream Believer.
Find yourself saying, “I’d love to [insert dream] but I don’t have the time”? Learn how to MAKE the time for the things you love most.
You’re listening to Episode 55 of the Music-Preneur Mindset Podcast.
Hello! You’re listening to Episode 55: Making Space for Your Dream.
I’m your host, Suz – a mindset coach helping music professionals get clear on their goals and find the time to get it all done while maintaining a healthy work/life balance.
A LOT of people struggle to find the time to get it all done. It’s great for business, but it also makes me want to shout from the rooftops IT’S NOT ABOUT TIME IT’S ABOUT PRIORITIES!
I hear allll the time from artists, and see alllll the time on social media, “yea, I’d love to do a…b… or c but I don’t have the time.”
Yes. You fucking do.
Now if you said to me, “I’ve got to work harder. I have the same 24 hours as Beyoncé so no excuses.”
To that I would say, “No. You fucking don’t.”
There’s a difference between being clear on your priorities and being unrealistic about what can be accomplished by one person in one day.
Beyoncé is far from a one-woman-show. She has an endless team around her, many of whom work while she’s sleeping. I’m not saying she doesn’t work hard, but she’s still human and would not survive her responsibilities if she constantly forfeited sleep.
She’s off getting diamond encrusted facials and massages on a mountain top run by yogis while people she has hired curate her social media content and book her shows for her next tour and roll out her latest campaign to go vegan.
So unless you’ve got the deep pockets to do that, you do NOT have the same 24 hours as Beyoncé. Sorry. It’s ok, she didn’t have those same 24 hours when she started out either.
One of the most important things you can do for your success is be more realistic about how long things will take.
How long it will take to get to 25k followers or 500k streams. How long it will take to write and post your first blog or newsletter. How long it will take to get your first yes at a venue in a new town. How long it will take to properly and effectively release a single to an engaged audience.
The number one thing that WILL speed up this process – consistency. If you are consistent in making content, consistent in practicing your craft, consistent in maintaining your relationships, movement in your career WILL happen.
In the last episode, Episode 54, I discussed the importance of routines.
In today’s episode we’re going to build on that a bit and discuss how to map out your days so that you’re giving attention to the things that matter most to you, and I’m not talking only about your career.
I’m all about a work/life balance after all.
In Episode 34 I discussed apps to help you be more productive and ways to cut out the noise and time-wasting activities.
In this episode I want to discuss more the mindset around being ready for what you’re asking for and how to make space both literally and figuratively in your life for what you want.
First, let’s begin with the words we use when discussing our current situations. If you’re someone who’s constantly saying you’re poor or you’re struggling or you’re not paid enough or you don’t have enough – you will continue to feel that way.
Even if your reality doesn’t necessarily reflect that, if you believe you’re poor you’ll always feel poor. You’ll always feel like everything is just out of your reach. You’ll always feel as though you’re struggling to stay above water when it comes to attempting to reach your goals.
This is something I’ve learned in the past year around my money mindset and it’s been a journey to unlearn certain habits of complaining about money or even joking about the fact that I sometimes feel money is scarce.
Our words matter and they dictate our actions and what we focus on. Aside from me complaining about how poor I feel on a given day and being dismissive of the fact that they’re are people out there who truly are suffering to make ends meet, I’m also putting that negative energy out into the universe and if I can’t acknowledge the great things I already have how the hell will I ever be ready to take on the great things I’m asking to attract?
I know that may sound too “woo woo” for some of you, but hear me out. It’s all about mindset. If I decide to see the glass half empty rather than half full when it comes to money, how will I ever recognize someone walking by with a pitcher of water if I’m stuck staring at a glass that’s not as full as I’d like it to be?
So you first need to decide on your mindset around time and around the things you want in life.
When someone tells me they have no time for something they claim to really want I always tell them they either suck at how they use their time or they don’t actually want what they claim they want.
If you want something bad enough you’ll make it happen. Now, obviously there are factors like self-confidence and discipline and having a support system in place (whatever that might look like to you) that are necessary in order to reach any goal, but those things all come with time. You learn to be more disciplined and you learn to find support and structure where you can find it.
But it all starts with wanting something badly enough that you’re unwilling to entertain any excuses that may keep you from it.
If you don’t want something badly enough, stop commenting that you don’t have time to do it. If it was a passing day dream idea you don’t actually plan on carrying out, stop talking about it. Stop wasting your time and energy putting negative complaints out in the universe.
Either decide to take action or change your dream and find out what really does light you up enough to take action. There’s no shame in changing your dreams. I used to dream of being Janet Jackson’s back up singer. Do you think I took any actions to even try to make that happen? Nope. Do you think I invested in vocal lessons and researched
how to get started as anyone’s back up singer? Nope. Why? Because as cool as that dream sounded I got very little from being up on any stage. It wasn’t actually something that mattered to me enough to start making time to work on and get better at.
Being a mindset coach? I have sacrificed jobs, vacations, time with friends and family, and I have invested in my training to make sure I have the necessary skills to hone my craft. That’s because it’s truly my dream to build this company.
I’m not someone who supports cutting off your relationships and “me time” in order to make your dreams happen – luckily I’ve now found ways to have a better balance. But there are times, like during finals week when it was time to finish my thesis for my Master’s program that I did have to shut out other fun things in life and buckle down to achieve my goal of graduating.
My point here is if you have something that matters to you to accomplish, you WILL have the time to make it happen.
So beyond deciding to have the right mindset around achieving your goals, and staying positive and driven throughout your journey, what are some of the steps you can take to make space for your dream when your plate is already overflowing with responsibilities?
First, identify what matters to you. Make a list of everything you spend your time doing throughout the day. I promise you you’re either wasting a lot of time on social media or in front of the TV simply because you’re escaping a life you’re not thrilled with OR you’re super non-stop busy but you’re busy wasting time on things that aren’t serving you.
Maybe you’re committed to a toxic relationship that takes up a lot of your time. Maybe you’re working overtime at a dead end job and you’re realizing you need to make some changes there. Maybe you’re spreading yourself too thin during your “off hours” to try to make your dream happen but the things you’re doing aren’t moving you forward and you need to reevaluate where to put your focus.
For example, during my years as a paralegal my former business partner and I spent a LOOOTTTT of time on our company website, always tweaking and redesigning it to make it look like the most impressive website you’d ever seen rather than throwing a simple landing page up there to contact us and spend our time finding new clients.
We also spent a ton of time designing merchandise and working on getting patents for products we were trying to launch down the line and create videos for our YouTube channel before we even understood who our audience was.
We were trying to build an empire from the top down. Have all of the departments covered at the same time rather than focus solely on the actions that were going to make us money first.
We did great work, but we weren’t growing because we were trying to be great at everything at the same time all the time. We were burnt out with little to show for it and the more that happened the more discouraged we got. Hard work is supposed to pay off, right?
But I’ve learned over the years that strategic work is what pays. It might take you an hour or it might take you all day, but if what you’re doing is intentional and has a purpose that will allow you to directly reach your goal then it’s the thing to do, otherwise it’s a waste of time. As I said earlier, be realistic about how long things might take. I did an interview last year with CD Baby’s DIY Musician Podcast and we worked through an artist’s typical day, with a
day job. We concluded with simple math that you maaaaay have 4 hours, at best, to dedicate each day to your budding career.
If you’d like to listen to the episode you can find the link in the show notes.
Don’t be discouraged by the 4 hours, just use them wisely. Go back to that list of what’s on your plate, decide what’s not important and replace it with things that serve your goals.
Assess what’s taking up time in your days and either toss, delegate, or automate.
Also realize that beyond what’s currently on your plate you’ll need to make decisions about stuff coming down the pipeline. Friends will ask you to hang out, family will plan vacations, peers will have shows to invite you to, the industry will promote events you may want to go to, etc.
In Episode 18 I discussed why and how to draw better boundaries. The key to making space for your dreams is being extremely protective of your time and energy.
Will going out with friends distract you or give you the break you need to come back to your work with a fresh perspective? Will going to an industry event provide you with great networking opportunities or will you
just end up drinking the weekend away? If you notice that you spend hours each week creating content for social media, can you streamline the process or hire someone to make graphics and content for you?
Don’t be pennywise pound foolish. Don’t just think about the money you’d be paying someone else, think about the cost of your time and energy doing something that may not be a strength of yours. Would you rather spend hours mulling over what to post on social media, or pay someone to get it all done in less than 2 hours?
The space is there for the things that matter. If you have something you love that you’re constantly putting off – maybe it’s not even about your career, maybe it’s time with a loved one who you keep canceling on – put a plug in the negative talk and start rearranging how you spend your time until there’s space for what matters most to you.
It takes time to put all of the pieces together but it’s crucial to hold yourself accountable and walk your talk.
When things start to go off the rails, get back on track by taking a minute to reassess how you’re using your resources.
If you’re not sure where to start and you’d like help doing that, you’re in luck! Head on over to www.therockstaradvocate.com/ep55 and enter your email to access my time-blocking audio tutorial that’s usually reserved for those who have purchased the Rock/Star Life Planner. No purchase necessary here, you can access it for free!
I want you all to have a chance to go through your schedule with a fine-toothed comb and identify what’s not working and what’s taking up space that could be reserved for something much more important to you. The time is there, it’s just a matter of finding it.
If you have a dream you’d like to make more space for in your life I wanna know about it! Tell me in the comments of the show notes page or shoot me an email! Or do what the young kids do these days and tag me on social media (that’s @rockstaradvo) and let’s talk about it!
If you’re in a rut and not sure what you need to focus on making space for first, try out my Next Steps Quiz! I’ve been told it’s pretty accurate… answer a few questions and not only will I let you know what next step to take BUT I’ll also provide you with a FREE download to help you get there!
The link to the quiz is in the show notes – that’s www.therockstaradvocate.com/ep55.
You’ll also find links to my new Time-Blocking Marker sets that I’ve customized specifically The Music-Preneur for musicians so you can easily and effectively block out your schedule with colors that reflect the different areas of your life and business. Each set comes with access to the tutorial that I mentioned so you can follow along and get the most out of them.
You can buy them alone or purchase them with the 2019 Rock/Star Life Planner and save!
The choice is yours!
As always, I thank you for listening and I’m here if you have any questions. Email me at anytime: suz@therockstaradvocate.com
Until next time, Rockstar! Have a wonderful week and I hope to see you back here next week so we can get grounded to get rising! Take care.
Key Highlights
- Why you’re not Beyoncé
- Understanding your dreams
- How to know what matters
- How to make the time
- Toss, Delegate, Automate
Links/Rocksources
- Theme music brought to you by DC-based Indie/Pop band Sub-Radio
- More podcast episodes can be found here
- You can download a copy of the episode’s transcript here
- Listen to my interview on CD Baby’s DIY Musician Podcast here
- Purchase the Time-Blocking Markers set here
Learn how to make time in your busy schedule for the things that matter!
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Block It Out!
Be sure to follow along with the Time Blocking Tutorial by using these customized Time Blocking Markers!
I’ve been time-blocking my schedule for over 2 years now and it’s a game-changer. Up your planning game by designating sections of your schedule to specific areas of your life & career.
Grab your own set for only $10 + S&H and you can make a BIG difference in your goal-achieving progress!
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