Songwriting Success – How Bad Do You Want It?

Often in my mentoring sessions, I find mysession asking aspiring writers this question, “How bad do you want songwriting success?”

“If you want something bad enough, you’ll find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse”

This quote always hits me right between the eyes. In some areas of my life, I’m still very much a procrastinator and excuse maker. I keep telling myself that I want to lose 10 pounds and have a six-pack stomach. I know HOW to do that. I’ve even done it before.

The trouble is that I don’t want that as bad as I want that plate of nachos or just one more beer. So, I put it off and I make excuses. “It’s the holidays – I’ll do all that in January”. “I don’t have time to go to the gym today – I’ll go tomorrow”. You know the drill.

In regard to my songwriting, I’ve learned to take aggressive action and to go get what I want.

I’ve seen how much doing so can change my life. Even so, I haven’t transferred that over to every area of my life.

I really believe that there are not many things in life that we can’t do if we want to do it badly enough. It’s the desire that holds us back at times. We have conflicting desires. And we want something else just a little bit more. Or we want it all. That one’s not realistic.

So, I would propose this idea to you. Pick ONE goal to focus on for a year.

Getting a cut? Finding 3 great co-writers? Losing weight? Getting a promotion? What is most important to you? Don’t make a big long list. Those are competing goals. Just choose one.

Now, imagine that you focus on that one goal for one year.

You do EVERYTHING in your power to make that happen. You put all of your other goals on the back burner until you reach that one goal.

Ask yourself daily… “How bad do you want songwriting success?

You are relentless in the pursuit of that one thing. You spend the rest of this year doing as much as you can each day to reach that goal.

What do you think would happen? I predict you would reach your goal. That’s the way it has played out in my life. When I try to get everything I want at once, I get frustrated. I lose my focus. And I usually wind up accomplishing very little. When I focus on ONE thing until I do it, I usually get there – or I get very close. Therefore, It all comes back to how bad I want songwriting success.

So, don’t make excuses. Define what you want. And go for it. You can do this!! And now that I’ve put it out there, I’m hoping I can report that I’m ten pounds lighter and wearing a six pack by the end of the year.

If you want it – write on!
Marty Dodson