Baby Steps Forward

My producer recently sat me down to talk about the after-release stage of the album production. He expressed a very strong encouragement to do everything I could to move forward at a steady pace.

I have to confess, forward movement is not as easy as it seems at times. I can speak from my own experience, whereas we all wish that we could just flip a switch and begin working and/or doing whatever it is that is listed on the task-list, it's not always so simple.

We are human, right? And our humanity demands limits. It limits our energy, our strength, our capacity, our emotion, our patience and our motivation. We would love to consider ourselves as above these limits, but the humble reality is that no one is above these limits. What is more, those who try to move themselves beyond their limits will quickly find the reason for their necessity.

So how can we move forward without exceeding the limits and going out of our minds with stress?

I love the words, taken from Bill Murray's comedy, What about Bob? - "Baby steps."

I have my list of todo's sitting right on my laptop's desktop. Well, they hardly sit there. They seem to glare at me. And the only thing that is keeping me from becoming overwhelmed with the never diminishing reality of their growth is the knowledge that I shouldn't look at the list. My job is to look at only one todo, just one. I work on it and if I find some obstacle in the way of completing it I put a note next to it and move on to the next one.

Right now much of my future success comes down to research, soliciting reviews of my music, and writing. Of course behind the scenes lies the rest of the demands on my time, like paying the bills.

So rather than freaking out about doing it all right now, each week I make sure to:

• put out one packet/contact for review of my music
  
• write at least three pages a day for my book
• read my daily blogs and pull contacts/info from them

I'll be the first to note that it seems overwhelming to be an independent musician staring at this HUGE music industry and trying to walk a path where I maintain ownership of my rights, likeness, future and career.

Whereas making certain and consistent steps forward is the key, I cannot but recognize that the strength to do this comes largely from the great friends and family around me. They are a tremendous support and have made all the difference in making it possible for me to even get this far.