How to Set Your 5 Year Music Goals

WHERE YOU ARE AND WHERE YOU WANT TO BE DON’T HAVE TO BE YEARS APART

The vision of where you see yourself in 5-10 years may feel like a lifetime away, but we’re here to show you that it isn’t. Setting attainable goals and establishing a gameplan for yourself and your career can dissolve feelings of longing and restlessness, and in turn, will start turning your visions into a reality sooner rather than later. You owe it to yourself to make the most of your time on Earth and to feel like you’ve fulfilled your purpose. There will be ups and downs, and there may be goals you don’t accomplish - but you can feel satisfied in knowing you tried your hardest.

Writing your goals down not only forces you to get clear on what, exactly, it is that you want to accomplish, but doing so plays a part in motivating you to complete the tasks necessary for your success. In fact, you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down or create a vision board.

The fact of the matter is, big dreams take time to accomplish.  Establishing a 5-year plan for accomplishing your goals helps frame your vision to a realistic timeline, leading to better goal success. We’ve come up with five key ways you can break down your long term goals into more manageable steps. Let’s delay no longer.

5 WAYS TO HELP ESTABLISH YOUR 5 YEAR PLAN

1. Write Down All of Your Goals

This may seem obvious, but it’s an essential first step. Writing down your goals is scientifically proven to help with long term memory, encoding, and external storage. Neuropsychologists call this the Generation Effect, finding that people have a better recall for information that they’ve created themselves rather than something they've read. Keep it old school and grab a piece of paper and a pen, and jot down every. single. goal and accomplishment you’d like to achieve in five years. Taking the time to write down each letter of every goal can help with mindfulness, and give you more time to think about the weight of each goal.  

Knowledge Drop - You are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down

2. Break Down Goals into Yearly & Monthly Objectives

Five years can seem intimidating, especially when you haven’t even established what your game plan is for next week (or even tomorrow). The best thing you can do is to break down the goals you’ve written down into yearly objectives. If you have a goal that is extremely grandeur, write out a draft as to what it may take to actually conquer that goal. If you break down your goals into steps, it’s easier to establish realistic timelines for yourself.

For example, if your goal is to eventually publish your music, brainstorm all of the things you’d need to do over a monthly or yearly time span. It may be to increase your collaborations, distribute your music, or connect with music professionals for mentorships. Another goal example, especially if you’re just starting out, could be to establish your beat store business strategy. Think of everything you need to do to make that goal a reality, such as building out your beat store with the BeatStars Pro Page, set up your marketing integrations, or researching different marketing and business strategies to help increase your buyers.

Pro Tip - If you're more of a visual learner, try curating a vision or mood board of inspiring artists, albums, or quotes to accompany your goal wiriting.

3. Break Down Goals into Weekly & Daily Objectives

Once you determine your yearly and monthly strategies, you can start to map backward. Look at your long-term yearly and monthly goals and outline weekly and daily steps you can take to start conquering those goals. This can be as simple as making a beat a week or setting aside 30 minutes every day to reach out to other producers for collaboration inquiries. Once you determine those smaller strategies to reach your overarching goal, slot it into your phone calendar and set reminders! Writing down and establishing these smaller steps is one thing, but actually implementing them is another.

Remember - These small, day-to-day tasks are more improtant than you realize, and they ultimately make up the foundation of your larger, big picture goal.

4. Use the SMART Goal Strategy

Marketers and business professionals are no strangers to the SMART goal strategy. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. Structuring your goals using this method can help guide your goal setting, focus your efforts, and increase your chances of conquering that goal. To help you get started with your first SMART goal outline, peep our example to the right.

Smart:
Specific - Release a successful beat tape
Measurable - Gain over 5,000 views on YouTube
Achievable - Use FL Studio to produce beat tape
Realistic - Establish beat tape Theme & Vision
Time-Bound - Release in two months

5. Do Your Research

Avoid blindly writing down a goal without knowing all of the bits and pieces that ultimately make up that goal’s end. If you want to eventually become a published producer, but have zero knowledge about the world of music publishing, then it will be hard to write out actionable steps to achieve that dream. Knowledge is always at your fingertips. Research different facets that make up your end goal while you’re waiting in line or attempting to fall asleep at night. The more knowledge you have about your end goal, the better equipped you’ll be to actually accomplish it.