Having A 5 Year Plan!

Having A Five Year Plan!

Sometimes, things don’t always work out the way you plan them – but if you’re an independent artists trying to make your mark on the biz, you can’t just go about your business willy-nilly and hope that someday the music business fairy is going to leave a record contract under your pillow. You have to have a plan!

I once heard in a podcast about the music industry, that people who write out a concrete plan are around 80% more likely to become successful. In sitting down, and forcing yourself to envision where you want to be in 5 years, (then where you want to be in 1 year, and each subsequent year after that) and formulating a step-by-step plan as to how you will achieve that vision, will help you to organize it in your head and live it out.

I remember writing out my 5 year plan a year ago, and as painstaking as it was, I look back on it and can’t believe all the things I accomplished last year that I hoped I would. Now, plans change, so it’s also important to keep in mind that your plan has to be malleable, and as different opportunities come up, you will need to change your plan accordingly. Today I had to sit down and re-edit my 5 year plan because so many new variables have popped up that I didn’t anticipate.

When writing your plan – be specific. If part of the immediate plan is to ‘do cardio for 30 minutes, 3 times a week’, then what’s the overall goal? Is it ‘To be a dress size smaller in 2 months.’? or ‘To perform a 45 minute set at a club without getting out of breath.’?
Here’s an article that helped me in writing down my 5 year plan: http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html
Hope it helps you too! Happy planning ☺
xoDJP

Sometimes I Get Down (Ways To Self-Motivate)

Hi, I am Dana Jean Phoenix 'The First Lady of NuFunk' and sometimes I get down! There I said it. And that is the first step to not being stuck in a new funk right?!?! Well... yes, and no.

I've always been a pretty optimistic person. I grew up with very loving parents who encouraged me to express myself artistically and believe in what I do. But somewhere between confidently performing in all of my high school plays and releasing my first album I got scared. Frightened that I really couldn't cut it in the 'real world'. That all of my hard work really wouldn't be enough and that people would think I actually sucked! I developed an acute bought of stage fright. I had writers block and I couldn't get out of the funk. To make matters worse my mentor, at the time, made me feel like I was a total sell-out because I wanted to make songs that could get club and radio play. I was stuck, sad, and confused. I started becoming a recluse. I was living on junk food. I stopped going out and started obsessing about my career (or lack thereof). I was spiraling into a deep depression. I was on the cusp of quitting music and retreating into the wonderful world of retail. I tried to deluge myself with positive platitudes: I think I can I think I can! But to no avail. Then I heard about an audition to become a back up singer for the then Canadian queen of R&B, Jully Black. I wasn't going to go, but the last spark of hope in me forced me out the door and into the audition. I was shitting bricks, but I forced myself to stay calm. I fell back into my training, trusted my instincts, and forced myself to excel at the audition, and got the call. Almost the next day I was out on the road and getting ready to tour across the country. And an amazing thing happened as I had to prep a ton of new material, find suitable stage clothes, get my hair did, nails did, change a bunch of shifts at my job, call all of my friends, family, etc... I had absolutely no time for depression. I was waaaaay to busy for that shit!

After that I realized two things: 1) There will always be times when I'm going to feel unmotivated, in a creative rut, and/ or just plain blughck!; 2) When those times occur I have to DO something - eat a well balanced meal (I've prepared myself), get out of the house, go for a run (or the dreaded gym;), go to an open mic (get up and perform a song I've been afraid to do), get off the interweb, go see a show, go to the mall and people watch, list all of the successes of the last year, ANYTHING but wallow!! And I could always use new motivational tips and tidbits, so lemme know what you do to keep the fires stoked;)