How Do Songwriters Battle Laziness?

photo by wrestlingentropy

It takes hold of the best of us.  It creeps up on us when we least expect it.  It sucks our musical inspiration dry.  It stops our songwriting career progress dead in it’s tracks.  I’m talking of course about laziness.  How do we as songwriters and musicians battle the urge to stay glued to the couch?

Is playing music “work”?

I don’t know many musicians who think of playing and writing music as “work” – even if it’s how they make their living.  It’s just too enjoyable to be considered a burden.  But it does take a tremendous amount of time and effort to build a successful career in music.  You have to constantly push forward, churning out new music, booking and promoting gigs, spreading your music and gaining listeners, or securing paid music composition work.  The mechanics of the daily grind can be exhausting.

On top of that, the path is littered with failures and setbacks.  How many successful bands do you know that caught a big break as soon as they formed their band?  I don’t think it’s even possible.  At some point, everyone plays shows to empty rooms.  Everyone watches their music fall through cracks and into oblivion.  That’s just how the story goes for songwriters and musicians just starting out.  These are just a few reasons musicians might succumb to laziness.  Fear not.  It gets better.

Working against the odds

Musicians have the unique ability to push forward when the overwhelming odds are stacked against them.  In order to find any kind of success, you must first work through some failures.  Use these failures to ignite your inspiration.  The moment you meet a setback is the moment you must push through.  Your only alternative is finding false comfort in sinking into your couch watching garbage reality TV shows about has-been rock stars on VH1.

Get off the Couch

There’s nothing wrong with chillaxin out and refreshing your energy.  Just don’t let it consume you to the point that your songwriting work suffers.  The way to avoid this is to understand what it is that keeps you on the couch for so long.

It’s not that you don’t want to work.  It’s not that your not interested in playing through scales, recording takes, promoting your music online, and planning rehearsals.  You love doing all that.  It’s that first step to get up and get started that requires so much more physical and mental energy.

If we can just get past that first hurdle – making the decision to start and taking action – the rest will flow beautifully.  Once you’re up and running, knee deep in the creative process, you’ll forget all about your relaxation mode because you’re totally consumed in your passion to create.

There’s always tomorrow

When our work as songwriters and musicians doesn’t meet the success we were hoping for, it can often cause us to give up and hit the proverbial couch for a while.  We must realize that as artists, every session is different.  We may not be feeling it today, but tomorrow we might write a golden song.  Who knows?  Nobody knows.  We just do.  So keep doing.

I’m going to leave you with a link to one of my favorite blogs, Zen Habits.  There, you will find quite a few articles that deal with overcoming laziness.  Hopefully you can relate some of ideas to your songwriting career.

Tell us your secrets!

How do you battle laziness?  What do you think causes it, and how do you identify your personal solution?

Related posts:

1. Why Songwriters Should Get on Twitter

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