How to uncover fear of success in electronic music
Have you ever gotten that gig or DJ residency you’ve always wanted only to pull back afterward? Or just generally worked so towards a goal that when it was finally here, you started to feel the fear creep in?
Success can bring up a lot of fear and your ego can try to sabotage your successes because the ego is always looking to protect itself.
You may be thinking:
“I’m in over my head, I’m not sure I’m good enough for this.”
“This is going too well. It can’t last.”
“There are others out there who are so much better than me.”
Achieving our goals is meant to bring us happiness and a sense of fulfillment, but that's not always the case. Why is that?
If any of this sounds familiar to you, then you are probably plagued by fear of success in music.
In this video, I'm sharing 5 questions you can ask yourself to dive deeper and to help you formulate YOUR definition of success so you can get clear on what that looks like for you in the dance music industry.
After you’ve watched the video, follow the steps below the video to uncover where your fear of success comes from.
One of the marketing and business coaches I work with has taught me an exercise to help me understand what success means to me. I uncovered something I didn’t even realize was there. I was truly blown away. It was so powerful for me that I just have to share it with you. Follow the steps below.
3 steps to uncover your fear of success
Grab a pen and a piece of paper so that you can write all of this down. Why is writing so powerful? There’s actually research backing up why writing - rather than typing, enables focused action and higher levels of thinking. You can keep this piece of paper in a visible place and look at it every day. This, in turn, ensures you’re more likely to remember it because you’re looking at it repeatedly. This is common knowledge, we learn by repetition.
Dr. Gail Matthews, a Professor of Psychology at the Dominican University of California discovered this: we are 42% more likely to achieve our goals if we simply write them down. 42%!
Free write for 30 minutes without editing yourself
STEP #1: Identify what success means to you now
This will help you to uncover where this fear is coming from.
Answer the following questions:
What is your earliest memory of success? When is the first time you can remember that you experienced some form of success? This can go all the way back to your childhood.
What happened after that? How did you feel? How did others around you react? What comes to mind?
Chances are that, after writing this all down, your current definition of success looks pretty negative. Even if you say you want success and achieve your goals, making a living doing what you love in electronic music, if you want something that’s associated with negativity, you are going to run from it. You’ll do everything you can to sabotage it - mostly on a subconscious level. Most people don’t even realize they are doing this.
STEP #2: Start to redefine what you want success to mean to you
This will be a work in progress, it won’t happen just in one session. Start thinking about it now, write it down and revisit this regularly.
Right now you might have a definition of success that’s pretty negative. You associate it with things like judgement, loneliness, people looking down on you, or pressure.
You need to start thinking differently about it if you want to achieve it.
What do you want success to mean (instead)?
STEP #3: Uncover how you avoid success
Make a list of 5 things that you are avoiding right now in the dance music industry that is blocking you from making a living doing what you love because you’re afraid of success.
Let’s continue the conversation!
While you’re addressing the things you need to do to make a living in electronic music, you can still take action and move forward.
So, after you’ve made your list of 5 things that you are avoiding right now that is blocking you from making a living doing what you love because you’re afraid of success, I want you to post 1 thing that you are going to start doing this month.