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Listen "119 – Leave it at the Door"
Episode Synopsis
Life presents us with many challenges. And, sometimes we end up carrying our negative thoughts and feelings into a variety of unrelated situations without even being aware of it.
In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share how you can “leave it at the door” and be present and fully engaged in everything you’re doing.
Download the PDF Transcription
Podcast Highlights:
00:14 – The challenges we encounter in life
00:53 – The costs of burnout
01:43 – Anxiety and depression
02:37 – “No Ego Beyond This Point”
03:17 – “Keep Calm and Carry On”
03:51 – The baggage we carry with us
04:51 – “Leaving it at the door”
05:32 – Concluding thoughts
Transcription:
Every one of us has challenges in our lives.
It could be physical, emotional, mental, financial or otherwise.
At times, everything feels like it’s going great. At other times, it feels like things are taking a turn for the worse.
Adopting a long-term mindset allows us to make peace with all of it, regardless of how it appears upfront. Because it’s through those difficulties and challenges that we grow, evolve and find new ways of being.
There is nothing truly bad. But there is nothing truly good. It’s mostly a matter of perspective, because if your heart is still beating in your chest, there is always the possibility for change. Seemingly bad circumstances can turn around.
But if you’re burned out, it can be hard to see the forest for the trees.
I’m not talking about the kind of burnout where you catch up on your sleep for a few nights and you feel great. I’m talking about the kind of burnout where every positive action you take only brings a miniscule amount of improvement or relief. Maybe 1%. Maybe less.
When you’re going through that kind of burnout, you feel lethargic. You have no energy. You’re extremely sensitive. Things that usually make you happy don’t make you as happy. You waver between bored and restless. You’re not sure what to do with yourself. You may even be depressed or become depressed.
That kind of burnout makes it hard to distinguish what’s going well and what isn’t going well in your life. It all gets painted with one color, because you’re seeing the entirety of life through one lens. You want to see it another way, but your emotions don’t allow for it.
Look, I will admit that I’ve had my fair share of encounters with anxiety and depression – especially in the last two years. There has been plenty to get excited about, plenty to be happy about too. But depression and anxiety are quite common among musicians and entrepreneurs, and it’s worth talking about.
When everything is doom and gloom, you need a support group to lift you up. You need people in your life that will walk alongside you and encourage you. And, as hard as it might seem, you need to take baby steps to restore your health, your wellbeing, your emotional state and your confidence.
You can rest and sleep more, meditate, exercise, eat well, get craniosacral therapy and chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture treatments, massage and more. I’ll talk more about these in a future episode.
If all you can do is put one foot in front of the other, that’s all you can do.
But going through burnout has taught me something important.
I used to own a home studio along with my roommate and business partner. In due course, he hung a little sign above the entry to the rehearsal space that read, “No Ego Beyond This Point”.
Artists can easily become precious about their musical and creative ideas to where they don’t want to make a compromise. But when you’re playing in a band, it’s important that everyone work together and feel like their contribution matters.
So, I think what my roommate realized was that a lot of the conflict in that room tended to come out of a sense of ego. If you allow a song to evolve with the help and input of your band members, it can turn into something amazing.
In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share how you can “leave it at the door” and be present and fully engaged in everything you’re doing.
Download the PDF Transcription
Podcast Highlights:
00:14 – The challenges we encounter in life
00:53 – The costs of burnout
01:43 – Anxiety and depression
02:37 – “No Ego Beyond This Point”
03:17 – “Keep Calm and Carry On”
03:51 – The baggage we carry with us
04:51 – “Leaving it at the door”
05:32 – Concluding thoughts
Transcription:
Every one of us has challenges in our lives.
It could be physical, emotional, mental, financial or otherwise.
At times, everything feels like it’s going great. At other times, it feels like things are taking a turn for the worse.
Adopting a long-term mindset allows us to make peace with all of it, regardless of how it appears upfront. Because it’s through those difficulties and challenges that we grow, evolve and find new ways of being.
There is nothing truly bad. But there is nothing truly good. It’s mostly a matter of perspective, because if your heart is still beating in your chest, there is always the possibility for change. Seemingly bad circumstances can turn around.
But if you’re burned out, it can be hard to see the forest for the trees.
I’m not talking about the kind of burnout where you catch up on your sleep for a few nights and you feel great. I’m talking about the kind of burnout where every positive action you take only brings a miniscule amount of improvement or relief. Maybe 1%. Maybe less.
When you’re going through that kind of burnout, you feel lethargic. You have no energy. You’re extremely sensitive. Things that usually make you happy don’t make you as happy. You waver between bored and restless. You’re not sure what to do with yourself. You may even be depressed or become depressed.
That kind of burnout makes it hard to distinguish what’s going well and what isn’t going well in your life. It all gets painted with one color, because you’re seeing the entirety of life through one lens. You want to see it another way, but your emotions don’t allow for it.
Look, I will admit that I’ve had my fair share of encounters with anxiety and depression – especially in the last two years. There has been plenty to get excited about, plenty to be happy about too. But depression and anxiety are quite common among musicians and entrepreneurs, and it’s worth talking about.
When everything is doom and gloom, you need a support group to lift you up. You need people in your life that will walk alongside you and encourage you. And, as hard as it might seem, you need to take baby steps to restore your health, your wellbeing, your emotional state and your confidence.
You can rest and sleep more, meditate, exercise, eat well, get craniosacral therapy and chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture treatments, massage and more. I’ll talk more about these in a future episode.
If all you can do is put one foot in front of the other, that’s all you can do.
But going through burnout has taught me something important.
I used to own a home studio along with my roommate and business partner. In due course, he hung a little sign above the entry to the rehearsal space that read, “No Ego Beyond This Point”.
Artists can easily become precious about their musical and creative ideas to where they don’t want to make a compromise. But when you’re playing in a band, it’s important that everyone work together and feel like their contribution matters.
So, I think what my roommate realized was that a lot of the conflict in that room tended to come out of a sense of ego. If you allow a song to evolve with the help and input of your band members, it can turn into something amazing.
In God we trust