Should I stay or should I go?

How do you know if you should stay in music or give it up? Is it determined by skill? Natural talent? Your education? Your job/ career so far? There are examples of those who were told they would never make it—who do. And there are those who try for years without much to show for it. Maybe it has something to do with how we want to identify ourselves. When we die, what kind of a life do we want to say we lived? Maybe by starting with an honest appraisal of what we value (making music, having fans, being famous, sharing stories) and then determining if the music field helps us become our best self, the person we truly want to be, we can start to tackle the big question of whether we should even continue striving in the field.

Whether we stay or migrate, we must strive to realize our true selves. Our best music—our whatever our life’s work is—can only be done if we’re aligned with what we think we should be doing. (And it’s ok to take a long time to figure it out—most of us still are.)