Why your new years resolution's will FAIL (and how not to)

The way you start anything has a huge effect on the result.

The first 10% of anything you do during the day, week, month or year has a huge impact on the rest of the 90% that follows. Once you build momentum, inertia is on your side.

If you’re serious about making 2024 your best musical year ever - it’s worth the effort to build a game plan

Why most people fail

The vast majority of people in the world do not do yearly reviews.

That sets them off at the beginning of the year at a massive disadvantage compared to those who do. Be the minority.

Those who DO a review usually use the wrong methods. The problem with most people's planning is that it’s too abstract, too touchy-feely, and isn’t actionable with clear steps to hit your goals.

Fact: Setbacks are constants. They will continue to happen again and again as time moves forward - that’s why you need to plan for it in advance.

• Life will happen and throw curveballs

• You will fall off the plan for your music goals

• Emotions will get the best of you

It’s impossible to know what the future holds, it’s unknowable. Our primal brains are hardwired to do anything to avoid uncertainty (to protect us). That’s why we gravitate towards anything that makes us feel “certain”.

The problem is when this illusion of certainty tricks us into thinking that we can avoid struggle. You can’t skip making mistakes and facing problems. This is true for hitting your 2024 goal AND in the creative process of making music.

That’s why I’m going to bring you through a game-changing yearly review process.

This is the 10% that will set you up for success for your music goals.

Start Strong

Good starts are important.

2023 was an amazing year for me, but also the most challenging at the same time.

• I became a first-time father.

• I moved from the country into the city.

• I designed an entire music-making system.

• I outlined, scripted, filmed, edited and finished 133 videos for my new coaching program

• I had to adjust to living with a lot more people

Being present with my family while working with clients, creating content AND producing a new course felt impossible on some days. Even being an ambitious person, I felt like I was a little overcommitted.

But I stayed on track.

How? Because I started the year with this exact process at the beginning of 2023. It works.

Write/type this out as you go through it. Writing things down will show the gaps in your thinking, it will force you to dig deeper. Writing insists on clarity whereas thinking lets you stay in the abstract.

Don’t rush this either - It’s a great opportunity to “check in” with yourself and do some deep reflection.

Let’s get it

You're a Radiohead

Not the band (though they’re mind-blowingly amazing)

Your head is a radio for thoughts.

Imagine consciousness as a radio antenna - the better the connection, the clearer the station will come through. If you try to tune into too many radio frequencies at the same time you’ll end up with static.

Most people live being tuned into constant noise. This drains precious and limited creative energy

• Thoughts about past mistakes

• Thoughts about unwanted futures

• Pleasure-seeking desires (to escape those thoughts)

• A list of random priority tasks that need to be done

• Open loops that got started but got left unfinished

"A person can make himself happy, or miserable, regardless of what is actually happening “outside”, just by changing the content of consciousness." - Mihaly Csikszentmilhapy

The antenna that changes your “content of consciousness” is your identity - who you “think” you are. If you change your identity your goals, perceptions and behaviours will follow suit.

A core part of what creates our identity is the beliefs we have of ourselves and the world. We form attachments to ideas, values and experiences. These attachments bias how we filter our day-to-day experiences and how we react to them.

The way you experience reality in your mind IS YOUR REALITY.

In other words: Your brain doesn’t match your beliefs to fit your life, your brain matches your life to fit your pre-existing beliefs.

• If you tell yourself you aren’t a good enough artist

• If you tell yourself it’s too hard to compose, produce and mix your album

• If you tell yourself it’s impossible to “make it” with your music

If your brain interprets these statements as “true”, logically… why would you bother trying to hit a music goal?

Your identity & beliefs shape what is possible and impossible for you (as long as it doesn’t break the laws of physics). This “identity” is a mental construct - it’s both the reason why we hit our goals or don’t hit our goals.

So we have to start there.

What kind of person do you need to become?

This is an invitation to step into a different role

Let me share with you a powerful framework for change and transformation

It’s called the Logical Levels of Change created by psychologist Gregory Bateson. It was adopted and expanded by Robert Dilts who is a figurehead in the NLP community.

This is you.

This is the internal map for consistent and lasting change in your life. The higher levels have higher impacts.

There’s a reason environment and behaviours are at the bottom. Yet EVERYONE (for the most part) focuses here asking: what do I need to do?

Playing around with our environment, behaviours and skills… we’re missing something HUGE. That’s what most people are doing and why most people are stuck.

Here’s a simple analogy to show the power:

Imagine an elephant and a rider.

• The top 3 stages of the pyramid is the elephant

• The bottom 2 stages of the pyramid is the rider

When the rider tells the elephant to turn left, and it listens, you turn left.

If the rider tells the elephant to turn left, but the elephant decides to go right, you go right.

Everyone has gone through a complete identity change at some point in their lives.

For example: the day my first child was born at 12:01 am on July 4th 2023 and my identity completely shifted. That exact moment in time is when I could say… I’m a father

In that instant, not as an idea, not as a belief, but as a FACT - I am father.

As my identity shifted my values changed. Some of my beliefs changed (I’m more inspired to leave something behind than ever before). My context for living changed.

From there I developed some new skills. Like learning how to manage my time better (by having a lot less time) and how to run my days with a lot less sleep.

We can’t not have an identity/ego, it’s part of what we are. the good news is we can build it in a way that serves us, the world and our music-making.

That’s why asking yourself what habits and behaviours you need to change in 2024 is the wrong question to ask

Ask yourself:

What type of person would hit the music goal you have in mind for 2024? (Write it down)

What lights them up?

How do they think about themselves and the world?

How do they show up?

What do they do?

What do they NOT do?

This will help you stretch your thinking as to what’s possible for you. Often we hold ourselves back from reaching farther simply because we can’t see it.

The only factor in success or failure has nothing to do with your fleeting emotional states. Nothing to do with what you did or didn’t do on a particular day. What matters is your projection on the present moment through the filter of your identity - over time

But let’s be real - you will not become a completely new person overnight

You can’t just tell yourself you’re a new person and instantly change your default way of thinking. You still have automatic emotional reactions and bad habits. Our brains need evidence for this “new identity”.

This happens by continuously voting for the person you want to become with your decisions and actions.

It would be unreasonable that if you made music every day and finished an album this year - you wouldn’t BELIEVE you’re a legit artist, producer and engineer.

See how this works?

How to make 2024 your best music year ever

As within so without. Let’s focus where it counts - on the inside first, then on the outside.

This is a process I run through at the start of every year. It will ground your thoughts and ambitions into something actionable.

Write this down as you go through it

1. Visualize

I. Standout Experiences

Time to do some reflection and remember what happened in 2023

It’s easy to obsess over what we didn’t get done and what didn’t happen. We tend to have a negative bias when thinking about this stuff. It’s really important to acknowledge what you did and celebrate the GOOD.

(there’s ALWAYS something to be thankful for).

So let’s start there.

Q: Biggest wins and best experiences in the past 12 months?

Q: Challenges you overcome in the past 12 months?

Q:What do you regret over the past 12 months?

Q: Could you have done more in the past 12 months?

Q: Does it still bother you?

Q: Can you let go and move on or do you need to dig deeper to understand it better?

II. Situations & Contexts

People and places - lift you or drag you down. Once you become more aware of this you can gain clarity on what actions to take. Who and where do you want to increase your time with and decrease your time with?

Q: Where have good things tended to happen?

Q: With whom have good things tended to happen?

Q: Where have bad things tended to happen?

Q: With whom have bad things tended to happen?

III. Habits & Routines

It’s worth keeping a notebook handy for the next few weeks and answering these questions during the day. This will help you identify unconscious energy boosters and suckers.

Q: What do you do on a daily basis?

Q: How do you feel morning, afternoon and night? Why?

Q: What do you do reactively?

Q: What makes you feel good?

Q: What makes you feel bad?

Q: In a typical week, what routines do you do that bring you joy, fulfillment and positivity?

Q: In a typical week, what routines do you do that annoy you?

Q: What do you wish you had done more of in the past year?

Q: What do you wish you had done less of in the past year

2. Transform

Now we want to interpret what happened in 2023 and extract the insights to move forward in 2024

To do something that you’ve never done before you will have to push beyond your comfort zone. You have to adopt a new identity - the compass to continuously progress toward the person you want to become.

The familiar, easy and comfortable will be the gravity that pulls you back toward your “status quo”. Adopting an identity that embraces challenges and moves through fear is the key to breaking negative patterns.

I. Patterns and feedback loops

Feedback loops are cause-and-effect cycles

They aren’t simply things that repeat, they compound. Each cycle and each iteration builds more and more momentum. The force they have has greater and greater impact on your life

You want to identify and call these out because these will be the most powerful forces in your life. They are relentless.

Q: What are the causes that are creating effects on me over and over and over?

Q: What patterns and feedback loops have had an impact on my life over the past 12 months?

Q: What are the positive progressions in my life?

Q: What are the negative progressions in my life?

II. Beliefs

Again, you will only act to the level of your beliefs. Dive deep beneath the surface to find the code that’s operating in the background of your life.

Q: What beliefs do I have about life?

Q: The world?

Q: My music?

Q: Myself?

III. Impact

Identifying the sphere of influence and the ripple effect you want to create will deeply impact your goals.

It doesn’t have to be to change the world (although that would be awesome) it could simply be to be fully committed to one person or a group of people.

What’s important is clarity.

Q: How do I want to impact people around me?

Q: How far do I want that reach to extend?

3. Manifest

Motivation and inspiration are fleeting. Lasting change does not happen by sheer will or determination - you need a systematic plan of action.

I. Goal

Time to take the steering wheel and drive. Let’s make all this actionable.

The “why” behind your actions is your true goal. Your “why” will help ensure you take consistent action on what will move the needle for your music in 2024.

It’s the most important part of any plan or any system - what’s the purpose?

Usually, people will say I want X, I want to do Y, I want to be Z - which is great. Goal bridge the gap to give us what we want that we don’t have right now.

The real question is what internal STATE does achieving your goal give you that you don’t have right now.

Here’s a hack: you can feel that state right now…

Q: Describe what your life will be like in 12 months, and how will it be different if things go according to plan.

Q: How does that feel?

Stop. REALLY FEEL THIS.

Once you’ve glimpsed your desired state you now have the key to achieve it. We live in the feeling of our thinking. So as you move through your day-to-day remind yourself to take action from the STATE you just felt.

Q: What am I going to absolutely make happen this year? (that is under my control)?

There are a ton of things we want to happen that are out of our control - so let’s focus on what we can control. (i.e not getting signed or hitting 1,000,000 Spotify plays)

It could be finishing a certain amount of music…

It could be to build a daily music-making practice…

It could be to develop and build a new musical skill…

Q: What would make this the best year of your life?

When you’re serious about something you want to anticipate what will get in your way AHEAD of time and plan for it.

Q: What is standing between me and those outcomes?

Q: What scares me about this undertaking? Why am I fearful of that? (or nervous if fear is too strong of a word)

Q: How can I change the equation or influence those obstacles in my favour?

II. Game Plan

Now we know that changing our identity has way more leverage than anything else to hit our goals. This is what you’ll do to continuously “vote” for the new person you want to become.

Q: What beliefs and values do I need to adopt to become this person?

Q: What skills do I need to build to become this person?

Q: What behaviours do I need to have to become this person?

Q: What environment (places and people) do I need to become this person?

Q: What new habits & routines can I employ to become that person?

Q: What projects do I need to finish to become this person?

III. Force Multipliers

Force multipliers are things you can do to multiply your efforts. Energy, resources and time are finite. If you’re serious about hitting your music goals leveraging these are TOTAL game-changers.

1. Systematic feedback loops - How will I continue to review my progress this year? (similar to what you just did in reviewing your year)

2. Health: How am I going to improve my health this year?

3. Relationships - How am I going to expand and improve my relationships this year?

4. Learning - How am I going to advance my learning and discovery this year?

5. Mentorship - Who or what can I bring into my life to help me this year? If you want to learn more about how I can help you: let’s chat

Guidance, support, community, feedback and accountability will help you achieve your goals that’s a fact. I wouldn’t be where I am without my mentors and teachers.

Here’s to an amazing 2024!

Let’s get it.

Your biggest fan,

• Alex

P.S I’d love to know what you have planned for 2024 - leave a comment and let me know.