Monotony
How to deal with a repetitive routine?
A repetitive routine? does it happen to performers too?
Well…yes and no, this is my blog so I will speak of my personal experiences having an ADHD actually diagnosed at a very early stage in my life and the ways I find around monotony.
Let’s start by something that resulted rather liberating once I understood it: monotony per se is not a bad thing, monotony allows us to reach goals by repetitive actions and gives us a frame of behavior under which we can always find some comfort in actions which we know and situations we can control; for instance, some people love monotony and they can not imagine a life that goes beyond steady standards and a set of rules and values that takes over their life…that’s good, isn’t it?
So why would I make an entire entry on how to “deal” with monotony in my musician website?
Well if you read my very first entry, you may know now that before I worked professionally on music I did train myself for marketing, trade and business subjecting myself to a pretty monotonous job that made me realize I am not the kind of person that can particularly embrace a monotonous lifestyle, that is why.
When I think in retrospective I find that since school I found various ways to break a monotonous lifestyle by adding ironically more commitments to my routine, for example when I was in college while my only real duty was basically to focus on my university assignments I soon started to find such thing boring lacking of challenge so I pushed myself through three years of morning basic music courses, French lessons and moved my university classes to the night so I could fit all these things into my schedule and my head.
Let’s fast forward to my music making experience: While studying and making music in the City monotony never existed, between my music school and the Freelanced gigs I booked to sustain my school I barely found time for myself which contrary to what would be the point turned out to be frustrating as I didn’t have time to spend on myself.
So what is the secret?
The truth is that it took me long to realize there is no secret or magic formula that can help beat monotony.
My way around it relies merely on finding a healthy balance between:
What I need to do now(work, business, appointments, practice, etc).
What I want to do now(socialize, leisure time, exercise, etc).
What I want to achieve (financial independence, a better musicianship, solid social media presence, etc).
What do I have to do to achieve what i want.
In other words: FOCUS ON THE BIG PICTURE.
Now I understand the concept of “THE BIG PICTURE” may sound overwhelming or even intimidating but truly it can be as simple as changing your job or deciding what to have for dinner. It’s not the big leaps that bring us to succeed but the consecutive repetition of small steps.
Anyway Let me know what you think. Reach out!
