The importance of goals and a working plan in an artistic project

"Making music makes me happy, with it I feel alive", can be a very recurrent sentence when you ask a music artist, whether amateur or professional, why he does what he does. However, this dedication is often accompanied by an enormous amount of frustration, most of the time unnecessary.

These frustrations are of the most diverse nature, it could be, for example, that the expected number of people did not attend a concert, or not have enough money to record an album/Ep/single, or not have a room to rehearse, or not be able to be the opening act for my favorite band, or have a parallel job because I cannot make a living playing, and so on. All of this is independent if the artist makes music as a hobby or as a (supposedly) professional.

Be that as it may, all these frustrations have a common origin, and that origin is the inability to answer the following question: "What do I want? It seems strange, since if we ask any artist that question, he will surely answer: "my greatest desire is to make a living by music", or if he is an amateur, he would answer: "I would like to play better", or "play in several concerts". Answers that seem to be legitimate and worthwhile goals.

When I refer to the inability to answer that question, I am referring to a very important element that does not appear in the previous answers, and which is the way to go from frustration to realization, it is the element that makes the goals go from being mere ethereal dreams, to being realizable objectives, no matter how big they are. That element is quantification.

Quantification refers to everything that has numbers and dates. It is as simple as that.

It's very different to say: "I want to make a living by music", than to say: "in three more years, on this same date, I want to make a profit of 2.000 € a month, after taxes and living expenses, by playing in concerts with my own artistic project, both in my home country and abroad". Sounds much clearer, doesn't it?

The quantification of goals, solves half of the problem, and immediately appears the other half, also in the form of a question: "What do I have to do to make things happen that will make those goals to be accomplished? That question implies the appearance of a fundamental tool: A working plan.

Now, before moving on to that working plan, it would be good to understand what happens when we try to quantify goals, and why it is sometimes difficult. Many times these unquantified ethereal desires serve as a refuge for us in the fantasy, they serve as escape routes; but when we quantify them, it means coming face to face with reality, with my reality, and how I struggle to change it. This can sometimes be very complex for many people, because it takes real courage and determination to change that reality, and not all people have that courage. How do we know if we have that courage? Only everyone knows their answer. 

Going back to the working plan, it will show us the different stages and smaller goals (also quantified) to achieve the larger objective. It requires real discipline and rigor to accomplish each stage of the plan, no matter if our ultimate goal is at an amateur or professional artistic level.

Let's take look at a simple example, which can be applied to both amateur and professional artists: "I want to record an album with my band, and then promote it live"

The first thing to do is to modify the statement, to transform it into something quantifiable: "I want, within a chronological year, to record an album with my band in the first six months, and in the other six, to perform at least 4 concerts a month to promote it, returning the initial investment, and generating the same amount in profits to invest in future projects". Then, establish the working plan to accomplish that quantified objective. 

What are the important elements in an action plan? There are two elements: a timeline with goals, and a budget.

The goal timeline should have dates, descriptions, and numbers, whereas the budget is knowing how much the final cost of the entire plan is, how much money we have, and if we have a lack of it, knowing where and how we get it. The more detailed and quantified everything is, the better.

Let's do the exercise of assuming the following: "the total plan costs 10.000 € , and in the band we are 4 members and each one can contribute with $2.000 €, so we will have to generate as a band 2.000 € with concerts, within 6 months", that would be the budget.

The timeline would be as follows:

- From 1 January to 31 March: composition of the songs, 9 in total

- From April 1 to 30: rehearsal of the songs, twice a week, two hours each rehearsal

- From April 1 to 30: get a place to do the launch concert

- From May 1 to 15: recording of the songs

- From May 16th to 31st: mixing and mastering of the songs

- From May 1st to 31st: working on the art concept and design of the album

- June 1: sending the master to manufacture 500 physical copies

- June 15: Digital streaming and physical copies are available 

- June 15 to June 30: Launching concert promotion starts

- July 2nd: Launching concert

- From July 6th to December 31st: to do a minimum of 4 concerts per month in the band's place of origin and outside it, with a minimum of 3 press notes in media for each concert.

Obviously this timeline is just an example, and it depends on the goals (quantified) to be achieved, in accordance surely with other bigger goals, and depending on the purpose of the band, its music style and the ambitions of its members. 

It is important to understand that unexpected events and modifications to the plan may occur. This is normal, but you must always have the final objective as your primary focus. It requires discipline, commitment and daily work to accomplish this, regardless if it is for professional or hobby purposes.

Without a working plan, everything is likely to fail, and frustrations like the ones we talked about at the beginning of this article will always be there, and worse, many times those frustrations will lead us to outsource responsibilities to everyone but ourselves.

On the contrary, having a working plan will allow us to achieve the goals we set for ourselves, not only in our music career, but also in any other area of life.