Maintaining High Performance Habits

What's up gigging pros! It's Jared Judge. Welcome to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. I just got out of the gym. And I am excited to get back. Because as you know, I had a wrist injury a couple of weeks back that was preventing me from going to the gym. In fact, it still does hurt a little bit, but it is manageable. And I don't feel like I'm damaging my wrist and harming my music by going and I'm taking it easy. But I wanted to chat because it made me think about the positive habits that we build as musicians, and how easy it is for us to lose those habits to revert back to the same old ways that don't serve us. You know, for example, this gym thing, I probably could have gone back to the gym earlier than I did, as far as like, you know, is my wrist Okay, to do this, I probably could have gone back a week or two earlier. But I didn't. And, you know, part of me is thinking, Oh, I'm just lazy. But that's not really a great way of thinking about it. That's kind of self destructive habits, which are not helpful. And that's one of the habits that many of us musicians have to break. And it's okay, that I didn't go back to the gym earlier, because I want to build long term sustainable habits. But the important thing is that I'm back. Because it's so easy to fall off of these horses that we build for ourselves. In the musical comparison, which is really the the main reason for this podcast is that becoming a musician who markets themselves is a habit that many of us musicians have to work over and over again on to become a musician who markets their music. It's an identity that we're building. And it's really hard and painful. To build that habit for many musicians, even myself, it's not a natural way of thinking, especially for introverts like me, where you have to overcome extra obstacles, to be able to like talk about your music in a way that is selling your music. So because it's so painful to build, it is painful to maintain. You know, there's a lot of people who say, an object in motion will stay in motion. That's what Newton's second law or something like that about momentum. And it is true to a degree, like it doesn't take quite as much effort to maintain the habit as it does to build it. However, it is very easy to lose that habit quickly. You know, if you're not spending dedicated time on it, or if shiny objects come by that take you out of that mindset. For example, for me, even new as part of my Fulltime Music Academy, I send emails regularly. I typically set one a day on business days. And I went on a trip to Wisconsin, and I totally fell off that horse. And that's because it's easy to lose these habits. But it's okay, if that happens. It's important to get back to that habit as soon as possible. It's like when you're working out. If you take a few weeks off for a month off, the muscles that you started to build, they start to atrophy, they go away. And then going back to the gym is harder than it was when you were going regularly. Because you're you're regaining some of the progress that you already had, like you've lost that progress, you gotta get back to it. Same like with your instrument, you stopped practicing for a bit. You know, there's songs that used to be easy to play are no longer easy. It's like you're learning to ride the bike again. So tons of analogies all in a row. But I think it is important to give yourself some grace, just like I'm giving myself grace, it's okay that I haven't been to the gym and well, it's okay that I haven't sent out an email in a while. Because I needed that time. I needed time for my wrist to heal. I needed time. You know, I've been going through a lot lately, and I needed to give myself some space to cope with that. So it's okay give yourself grace. I've mentioned that in previous podcasts. But once you are able to get back to a spot where you're able to go 100% Then go 100% Go 110% Because why else would you do it if you're not willing to go all in on it? I did want to also address like, especially with music marketing, you know, you are a music marketer whether or not you like it and other musicians or music marketers, and everyone is kind of doing this all at the same time. And it's the ones who maintain that habit who have The competitive edge over others, which is not to say that we're all competing against each other. But, you know, there are ways to do this game easier than others, which is if you actually understand the principles of marketing and sales, and you apply it to your music, the habit that I see most not most but many musicians fall into is like, you start to go down the path of learning to market your music, you try out a few things. But the shiny object of going back to your old music habits, where you're mainly just doing the music, because it feels good and sounds good, without a care of who your music is serving. But like how much fun you're having in the practice room and onstage, which is awesome. I'm not dissing that anyway. But that shiny object will. It's like a tempting piece of candy. If you're on a diet, let's just not to say marketing. But if you're on a diet, and you're just eating candy, and then all of a sudden, somebody offers you a piece of chocolate, it's very easy to take it. And then you get on this path of eating chocolate and cats and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which are my favorite, by the way. But then you lose the progress on on your, your market, and you lose the progress on a new diet, which is too bad is, truthfully, if you want to do more music, if you don't have more fun on stage, then if you market your music, you'll get more high paying opportunities, and you'll be extra rewarded. For all that hard work. Like, the way I kind of see it is that the typical music experience that does not involve high paying gigs, it is rewarding, but it is short term rewarding. And you It's you always kind of have to get more of that dopamine hit in order for it to, to feel as good like, after a while playing on stage at bars probably gets a little old. And so you need more of it. And it just is not long term fulfilling. Whereas if you position your act for the high paying gigs, you kind of raise your musical act into a higher tier higher standard of playing. And thus you're compensated more appropriately, those dopamine hits are much bigger. And they're much more sustaining because your bank account is full because of it. And that does take consistency. With music marketing, it takes you being able to get back up on that horse when you fall off. And it takes a village takes a community. So that's kind of why I started Fulltime Music Academy partially was just to surround myself with other musicians who nerd out about marketing and sales, which I'm so grateful for. So if you want to join something like that, I want to give you a free trial and want you to get a free copy of the gig Vault, which is a it's actually like a super secret booking agent strategy that I stumbled upon which April's enables you to TEDx, you're getting income without 10x and your effort or using social media. Like that's not required at all. So if you want to learn more about that, go to FulltimeMusicAcademy.com/venues and get your free copy. And you'll get a free trial of Fulltime Music Academy. I mean, honestly, if you're not a part of that community, you are missing out. We're basically handing you gigs. And you're saying No thanks. I don't want them. I'm good. So if you don't want to be, you know, saying no to high paying opportunities, then go to FulltimeMusicAcademy.com/venue And join us it is amazing. I promise if you love this podcast, you will even love Fulltime Music Academy much better because that's that's this podcast on steroids. Alright, thanks for listening to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Remember, "You are just one gig away!".