Are you being true to yourself?

Hi there,

Are you a signed artist who is constantly writing songs that are commercial enough to sell to the masses in order to keep your record company happy, when you would rather write from your heart, but not be so popular? Are you an unsigned artist or act that is doing the same thing, in order to attract a record company? Do you work in the music industry and find yourself having to tow the line in order for your company to make money, but at the expense of losing what's important to you within your career in music?

Apologies here, if I am making the record companies out to be the bad boys - I am just using them to illustrate the point of losing sight of your own core values! Values - what are they? I hear you ask. You may have your own definition of what values are, but to give you a clue, I have heard them defined as the unwritten rules by which you live your life, however, I have also read that values are not principles, morals, or ethical behaviour.

This being the case, values are essentially 'who you are' and when you are not honouring them (living in line with them), you will feel out of integrity with yourself or in discord - this discord can make you feel completely out of tune (excuse the pun!) and as a result, your health can suffer.

I was talking to a singer/songwriter a few weeks ago and he said, "I have always aspired to getting a record deal - I thought that meant that I had made it. But you know, I'm not that bothered about that any more. So long as I am writing and creating the music I want to and I am being true to myself and not selling my soul for someone else's benefit, then I'm happy".

Looking at that kind of statement it suggests that if you are honouring your values, you gain some sense of happiness and maybe fulfilment. It also suggests that your values enable you to direct your life in a specific way and to make decisions.

Reading the biography of Sam Duckworth (Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly) on his website recently, I was encouraged to see him state, "There's a preconception that when you sign to a label, everything changes, but it doesn't have to. I wanted to record in a way that fits with everything else I've done". He says, "Do it for yourself, don't spend £150,000. Keep it home grown and let it stand for what it is". This is great as it illustrates that he is creating and recording his music in accordance with his values. And his record company is letting him! (www.getcapewearcapefly.com).

So how do you know what your values are and how can you use them to make decisions and lead your life in tune with them? Well going through the following exercises may help you:

Exercise 1 - finding your values. To find out what your core values are, think about a specific peak moment in your life - to be helpful, this moment needs to be time limited - in other words an afternoon or a day in your life that was particularly pleasing or happy for you. Then ask yourself the following questions: What was happening? What was going on? Who was present? What values were you honouring at the time?

For instance: You may remember a time when you were out with your family for a Sunday lunch at a local pub. You felt really at ease with everyone and really enjoyed the banter and camaraderie that was going on amongst you all. You went for a walk along the riverside and felt relaxed and at one with nature.

To elicit your values from this scenario, think about what you felt and try to find a word that describes it - this could well be one of your values. For example from the above scenario you may decide that your values are: harmony, love, mutual respect, openness, nurturing.

You will see that in order to express your values you are searching for a word that describes what is important to you in the way you live your life. There is no particular limit on how many core values you can have, but if you find that you have more than 12 - try to make sure that they are really one of your values. For instance if you think that 'family' is a value, I would argue that you need to drill down a bit further to find a word that sums up what it is about family that is really important to you. To do this ask yourself, what does family give you? - it may be feelings of love, responsibility, control, nurture, mutual respect.

We have been talking about core values above. The same exercise can be undertaken to find your music career values - these values may be similar or have some overlaps with your core values, but you may be surprised how different some of them can be - showing a different facet of your personality in a specific area of your life. To work out your music career values - make sure that the peak moment is set in your music career to date.

Exercise 2 - Using values to make decisions and live in tune with them. Once you have worked out your core values and/or your music career values, it is important to live your life by them to enhance your happiness and fulfilment in everything you do.

So if you are wanting to make a decision about your music career - lets take the example of signing up to a record deal, once more - take a good look at your music career values and ask yourself the question, will this record deal allow me to honour my music career values, which could be made up as: integrity, openness, creativity, independence, individuality, personal control?

If it does for the most part, then agreeing and signing the deal will make you feel happy, if the deal goes against most of your values, agreeing and signing it will make you feel miserable and it will only be a matter of time before you could become physically ill or even emotionally or mentally ill.

If you do not live your music career authentically, your creativity can also suffer - something no artist wants!

One final tip - if you are feeling out of sorts with you life, but you can't put your finger on the reasons why. Take a good look at your core values and see if you are living in alignment with them - you can usually see somewhere that you are not and this is usually the cause of your discomfort. You can then look to see how or what steps you can take to make it better.

I hope this newsletter has been helpful. Working out your values is not the easiest of things, but they are the foundation of your life and music career, so if you need help, send me an email to arrange a call to see how I can help you do this. I look forward to hearing from you.

In the meantime I wish you a very Happy Christmas and New Year - as it's unlikely that I will be sending you a newsletter on New Year's Eve!

So are you being true to yourself?

With very best wishes,

Bravura Group
helping you brave the music industry

http://www.bravura-group.com

t: 01246 231 249 / 0845 456 460
e: lindsey@bravura-group.com

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I work with signed and unsigned artists and personnel working in the Music Industry who want to become more productive, creative and ultimately more successful in their music careers, whilst enjoying a more enriched, fulfilling and balanced personal life.

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