Dreams, goals, and habits—the building blocks of your career 

We’ve all closed our eyes and pictured what we want our music career to look like, but how do we get there? 

It’s easy to get stuck in tutorial hell when you’re an independent artist. 

Endless YouTube videos, Reddit threads, and online courses can fuel knowledge and motivation, but they won’t move the ball forward alone. 

That part requires something more than knowledge. 

Action. 

But how do we take action when our dreams feel too big? 

Or worse yet, unattainable? 

Well, I like to break it down into smaller and smaller pieces until I get to something I can control. 

Here’s how. 

Dream big 

The music business was made for dreamers. 

No one ever ended up headlining arenas with an “I’ll take what I can get” mentality. 

Breaking out of the mediocre and into the elite requires big drive and big dreams. 

So don’t be afraid to dream big. 

We all should. 

Big dreams get us out of bed in the morning and keep us on the path when things get tough. 

And they will get tough. 

Dreams also give us a vision for the future. 

A light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. 

So if you haven’t taken the time to specifically outline and determine your dreams, your vision for the future, this is the place to start. 

Maybe it’s headlining arenas. 

Maybe it’s making a living from music. 

Maybe it’s finally releasing the album you’ve been working on for years. 

Whatever it is, see it, own it, and believe it can happen. 

Goals mark the path 

If dreams are the light at the end of the tunnel, goals are the markers along the way. 

Setting goals allows us to continue to push forward toward something meaningful and manageable. 

They also help us measure our progress. 

So, for example, if our dream is to make a living from music, then we can set quantifiable “checkpoints” along the way. 

So we can start with the math. 

How much do we need to live? 

Is it $30k per year? 

$50k? 

$100k? 

Choose your number—now you have your first goal. 

Next, create milestones. 

Instead of thinking, “I have to make $100,000 per year from music,” let’s figure out how to make $1 first. 

Much more manageable. 

If you can make $1, you can make $2. 

If you can make $2, you can make $4. 

And so on. 

Each goal is progress on the path toward the final goal of $100,000 per year and the dream of making a living from music. 

Habits are the steps 

There’s no use in seeing the path if we’re not willing to walk it. 

So if our dreams are the light at the end of the tunnel and our goals are the checkpoints along the way, our habits are the steps we take to get there. 

Each step might feel insignificant in the face of a dream so large, but as Lao Tzu once said in the Tao Te Ching, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” 

Facts. 

If you want to make a living from music and you’ve never released a song, the first step might simply be opening your DAW to create a new session. 

If you’ve released a lot of music but you’re not making money, the next step might be to start learning about marketing. 

If you’re releasing good music and successfully marketing it, maybe the next step is monetization through merch or shows. 

The point is, there is always a next step. 

And with every forward step you take, the stronger and more experienced you become, the greater the challenges you’re equipped to face, and the closer you come to achieving the remainder of your goals and realizing your dreams. 

So dream big. 

Set measurable goals along the way. 

And put one foot in front of the other every day. 

Eventually you’ll wake up and be precisely where you want to be.