During our classes at Cosmic Academy, we try to instill habits and routines for our students to accomplish their goals. Many of these structural additions are not necessarily grounded in music production, composition, or mixing. Nor are they directly connected to your brand or artist persona. However, these habits are tied to your daily life, setting you up to succeed in the aforementioned pursuits.
In the Cosmic Academy bootcamp, we train our students to think like entrepreneurs. For us, the definition of an entrepreneur is “a person who creates something, and wants to share that thing with the world.” For a traditional entrepreneur like Steve Jobs, that “thing” is the iPhone product, and he wanted it to be in as many hands as possible. For you, that “thing” is your music, and you want that music to be enjoyed by your fans.
So, if we can agree to look at things through the lens of entrepreneurship, we should start implementing various habits that a structured company or endeavor would have. No, we're not going to push you to have 9AM meetings with yourself (however, even that wouldn’t be the worst idea...). But, these 5 habits should definitely help you in achieving your goals.
1. Follow the 5/25 Rule.
Make a list of the 25 things you want to accomplish;
Now take the top 5 most important...
And put the other 20 aside.
The takeaway: Most of the time we feel like we have too much to focus on, & too many goals. This causes stress & overthinking. What happens is, the 20 less important goals take away from the main 5. Focus there first.
2. Start managing your time with structure
Work in blocks of time—try 60 minute blocks with 10 minute breaks;
Limit how much time you spend on social media (track it!);
Give yourself strict TV & gaming time, and don’t go over the limit you set for yourself;
Plan your week in advance and stick to the schedule!
The takeaway: Most artists will stray away from “structure.” We love being creative and going with the flow. However, structure sometimes enables freedom & allows us to take control of our lives.
3. Learn how to manage money.
Money management is as important as getting money.
Spending more than you earn and going into debt will just make your life harder.
The Takeaway: There are people who buy a $500 wallet and have nothing in it. Rather buy a $25 wallet and have $475 in it. Don’t go broke trying to look rich.
4. Have Laser-like Focus on your goals.
You need to train your mind to focus on the goal;
Put things that don’t matter in the background (it’s just noise).
The takeaway: You need to starve your distractions, and feed your focus. When distractive thoughts enter your mind, practice changing your line of thinking, and quickly go back
to what you're doing. It gets easier over time.
5. Start investing heavily into two things:
Skills:
Educational books, courses, seminars;
Strengthen your weaknesses (confidence? Marketing? Design?).
Your mental and physical health:
If you don’t take care of these, nothing else matters.
You won’t make it very far if you’re sick
The takeaway: in the music business, we sadly know far too much about what happens when these aren’t prioritized. Try to exercise, eat clean, focus on mental health and being happy. Nothing else matters.