What do you think your biggest obstacle to making a successful living as a musician is?

Some of the common reasons I hear are things like: “It's the pandemic. It's the economy. It's the government. It's my job that doesn't pay me enough. It's my boss. It's the music industry. It's Spotify. It's the Facebook algorithm. It's my partner being demanding. It's my family commitments chewing up all my time.”

No. Your biggest obstacle is none of these things. Your biggest obstacle is you.

It's your self-doubt. It's your fear.

It's your lack of resolve.

It's your unproductive habits. It's your lack of discipline. It's your lack of consistency.

It's your lack of motivation.

It's your unregulated emotions that get the better of you.

It's your obsolete ideas about how the music industry works and getting hung up on it being unfair.

It's your reluctance to go to the edge of your comfort zone and try new things.

Ultimately, it's your refusal to take 100% responsibility for your life and your results.

All of this might seem like bad news, but it's not.

The problem is not the problem. Your attitude about the problem is the problem.

If the problem is us, that's a good thing because we have control over it and can change.

These are all things that you have direct control over.

When you think about it, it's a miracle that we can decide we want something and then go and create that in our lives and make it a reality. And yet, a lot of the time we're not doing that. We're not the conduit for our success and dreams. We're an obstacle to that.

Our greatest limitations are self-imposed. It's not anything external. It's us. But we externalise and blame things outside of us.

If I gave you the choice between changing yourself, or changing the economy, or the pandemic, or your boss, or the music industry, or streaming platforms, or your partner or family, which one would you pick?

It's a no-brainer, right? Yourself, of course!

You've got infinitely better odds of changing yourself than changing the economy, or the pandemic, or your boss, or the music industry, or streaming platforms, or your partner.

You've got no direct control over those things. You have no leverage there. Trying to change them would be an exercise in futility.

A lot of the time, I don't think we're genuinely interested in changing those things. They're a convenient scapegoat. We're comforted by having those things to blame our lack of progress on because it means we don't have to look within ourselves, where the true problem lies. It lets us off the hook. We can abdicate our responsibility:

“Dude, it's this crazy COVID-19. All the venues are shut and I can't get any gigs. What can you do?”

“The damn radio station won't play my single, and they won't even return my calls or emails.”

“Man, I can't sell any CDs because of Spotify. And they're ripping us off because they pay almost nothing when our songs get streamed.”

“People just don't appreciate good music these days. They have no taste. They wouldn’t know good music if it hit them in the face.”

We love to bitch and moan about these things and express our righteous indignation.

They allow us to adopt a victim mentality. Self-pity is a very seductive emotion.

You've got all of these powerful tools and platforms and resources available to you that musicians didn't have 20 years ago.

So your limitations are not external; they're self-imposed. So you have a choice here:

You can continue to externalise the problem and blame your circumstances, and wait for them to magically become favourable to your progress and success. Or you can take 100% responsibility for your life and your lack of results and get out of your own way.

You can continue to be a victim of circumstances, or you can be the master of your own destiny.

You can be your greatest obstacle, or you can be your greatest asset.

Refuse to let yourself be your greatest obstacle. Don't let your self-doubt or your mindset or your habits be the reason you don't make progress or succeed. Get out of your own way and become a conduit for your success and your dreams.