Just. Keep. Going.

0:56 what's good everybody welcome back to love music more I am Scoobert Doobert. I was just editing the pod for next week with cal kevany and

1:28 One of the things that we talked about was how being on the road is an endurance sport andI've been thinking about that a lot and I'm pretty sureEverything in music is an endurance sport andEspecially if you're independentThere's not a lot of room to rest.

1:44 That's okayBut I wanted to talk about some of the things that have helped me some of the things I've learned from running some of the things that keep me going hopefully they keep you going to andI don't know just some nuggets from actual endurance sportsI'm not a very good endurance athlete, but that's why I think I'm actually a decent person to talk about

2:06 Some advice and take a ways from it because I am so average that I have to lean on any techniqueI can possibly think of tofinishSo I've run I think five or six marathons now andcertainly will run more but

2:25 Music itself every album is a marathon doing this podcast every week is a little marathonAs well as juggling everything else in life

2:34 Maintaining consistency and maintaining output is really really hard in the creative space because you want to breatheYou want to have time to stopBut really I think that it's almost a myth that you shouldLike the concept of burnout I think is more aboutnot managing yourRelationships to work than the actual output itself

3:01 And what I mean by that is so much of burnout isn't necessarily like I worked so hardIt's that I worked harder than I had in my gas tankAnd now I am at a deficit

3:14 Or and more often the least for me what it really is is that I'm not motivated because I'm not interestedI'm not excited. It's not challengingAnd that's always my biggest sign with music of if I'm notChallenging myself if I'm not liking it. I'm not gonna have enough energy.

3:31 I'm not gonna finish itThe gremlins that come out when you don't Push yourself when you're not out on the frontier of what you're capable of are so extreme thatThey almost are impossible toLike evade for very long. You can push through a few few things

3:49 You can make a few songs that you're not into you can even make an album that you're not intoBut I really think that when when artists hit the wallI don't think I think it's less about they worked too hard and I think it's more about they're not excited enoughOr they're not emotionally invested enough or they're not challenged enoughIt's it's the difference between motivation that's external versus internal

4:10 And I feel that a lot with creativity ofSometimes you know where you're supposed to be going and when you deny it and when you deny it for too longThat is what really really confessorSo that's part of it the other part of it is setting little milestones and playing little tricks on yourselvesSome of which are healthy some of which are certainly notBut when I'm running

4:37 I try to treat the first half marathon like the warm up and then I don't consider it a race until the last six milesSo that I trick myself into breaking things up into chunksSo I don't think of it all as one the same way I try to do it for like an album ofIt's not really an album until you have like six songs and then it's an album and then you got to start filling in the blankSo you got to do the next six

5:03 And it doesn't really start to get hard until you're like song number eight because now it's crystallizing now you don't have a lot of roomAnd that's when it gets really challengingBut leaving almost like tricking yourself into thinking that it's not challenging until the eighth songThen it allows you to have enough in your tank or enough emotionally to push through to the endSame thing with I don't know

5:26 Any little micro endeavor that adds up into something biggerJust all of the coordination and

5:35 Teamwork and long nights everything that has to go into something especially when you have other things going on in your lifeAnd like we all know music doesn't pay you very much

5:45 So you have to have other things going on in your life you have to be doing a bunch of stuffEverybody that I've talked to on the podcast even the very successful onesThey're working all the frickin time because they just they have toBut also because I think that those that work all the time are the ones that succeedIt's it's almost like it's it's twofold

6:03 If you have that endurance that you build I really don't know if it's a geneMaybe it is like maybe it's it's in youBut I think a lot of it is just like showing up like lunchpale mentality and getting it done and

6:15 Again tricking yourself into thinking that you know, I'll take a break soon if you does never doSometimes you do put very rarely.

6:23 I think that cultivatingenergy and spirit isSuper super important and then also ends up leading towards success which thenLeads to you need more energy and spirit because you have more people that are demanding stuff from you You know at a certain point you're in demand as in people are demanding you to do thingsAnd as long as you've built a career that is centered aroundStuff that excites you it's pretty easy to

6:50 To meet that demand with excitement and then when you meet it with excitement you meet it with energy and you can push above and beyondBut when people are demanding things of you of something you really don't like and believe meI've got other stuff that is not music in terms of like work things that are it's just brutalAnd but the reason why it's brutal is notnecessarily because it's hard all of this is hard

7:12 I'll sit in front of a computer and tune a vocal forever or learn a new program or do all sorts of different thingsBut those are inspiring there are other things that are just mindless and brutal and that it's also hard I thinkwhen you areWorking for someone else or inside ofSome sort of system that doesn't really value you or give youPerspective end-to-endThat also is super demotivating

7:38 What I mean by that is in music if you are part of the entire process of creatingThat's a thrill in and of itself because you're going to see something that doesn't existBe come into existence and you're going to be a part of that all the all the way along when you are running a little tiny jobIt within any little packet of that journey.

7:59 It's a lot less motivating at least for me Because it feels like I have this like one roleI'm going to do it really well, but I feel a little bit more like a cogRather than like a free thinking-challengedCreative individual different for everybody, but those two states for me areWildly different motivation and energy even if it's I'm on same day

8:20 And there will be moments where it'll be like wow, I'm really dragging. I didn't get enough sleep last nightAnd I've not been sleeping enough. I've been working really hard, butThose days are really funny because if you get an idea or you start writing a song or something like that all of a sudden you have energy again

8:37 Not saying that you need to push yourself beyond and it's probably bad that I have been toYou got to find balance, but balance also is overrated. I'm not the right person to say it.

8:51 I've been balanced for a decadeDecade plus, but yeah, the the goal is not necessarily tobeSuperhuman the goal is to find emotional andInspirational triggers that allow you to push beyond for Dedicated and purposeful moments when you have to meet them and by meeting themYou get a little bit more in your tank for the next time at least for a while, you know

9:18 This all could this all could be very bad advice long term and we'll see we'll see how it goes for meBut at least for now, that's the way that I've been able to manage. It's not just workflows. It's not just creativity a lot of it is just

9:32 Getting to know your own psychology finding the things that you're excited about pacing outThe hard things the things that are brutal andAlso recognizing that teamwork is really really important, especially for those things that are really brutal because it's possible to haveInspiration like say for example you really hate like bookkeeping and accounting which I kind of do

9:53 Going through receipts and doing you know mate likeThat's a great place to pay somebody if you can, you know, or at least like beyond the pathLike another like emotional trigger. So like I'm gonna do my receipts this yearBut you know what?

10:05 I'm gonna make so much more money next year than I'm gonna hire somebody to be able to do the receipts Like those little things then it's easier to do it this year because you know you know what this is gonna be my last year doing itWhether or not that's trueBut I do the same thing running where it's like, you know what I know this place

10:22 It's not that much further or you subtract a mile or you do it intentionally do something where you don't look at itOne of the mile markers and I'm like I'm further along than I am whateverThese little tricks thatCan put a little wind in your sales.

10:34 There's also the same thing that happens on a race course where they'll have these little aid stationsThey'll have cheering stations maybe a band Those are all these really cool little moments that you can

10:47 Associate in the moment rather than with the activity that you're doing which is the reason why

10:53 Only my first marathon I wore headphones and then every other. I've just gone gonerawBecause I really like being in the moment and feeling the painBut then finding things to center myself outside of the pain and that really really helps meAnd I think that that mentality has helped me a lot in music and in jugglingnot perfectI definitely get burnt outBut usually the burnout isn't just a function of lack of sleep or

11:24 Doing too much. Usually it's a function of notFinding excitement or autonomy or having an imbalanced lifeTowards something that isn't true to your human nature like who you are as a personWhich is very difficult because again economic realityYou have to do some stuff that isn't going to be in line with who you are as a person

11:48 Just is what it is. That's the reason why we have money. I swear is just to get people to do that kind of stuffAnd fair it doesn't it worksbutTrying to reclaim as much of your life as you can as much of your output and your passion as you canThat aids burnout more than sleep more than a vacation more than a breakThe work is goodThe work is fun even the hard partsIt just has to align with your spirit

12:23 Your passion and you have to sometimes play a little psychological trick on yourself to sayAll right, that was just the warm-upHope you enjoyed this podcast if you didI'd love to invite you to listen to my music at scoobertdoobert.pizza very serious

12:42 Endeavor that I do here and also I'd like to invite you to share the pod with your friendsSomebody else that might need a little creative inspiration or come on the pod yourself hit me up at scoobertdoobert.pizza if you want to we can talk andYeah, hope you're rated five stars and whatnot. I'll see y'all next week