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One of the hardest things to overcome as an artist in any medium is working outside of your comfort zone. The term comfort zone is just what it sounds like – the place where you are most comfortable – and as an artist remaining in that place can be a hazard to your career.
The idea of a comfort zone is that it allows a person to exist in an anxiety-neutral state. You’re still engaged with the world around you, but you do so in a way that creates and maintains mental boundaries, which in turn lead to a false sense of security. You’re unable to grow and develop because to do so would be to take on new challenges, each with their own inherent risks and stressors, and as a result you become stuck in a creative rut that will ultimately drive away fans.
There is no on/off switch for comfort zones, and like any other challenge related to continued creativity there is a battle to be fought nearly every day. Comfort zones offer us short term happiness at the expense of longterm development, and for many deciding to chase the latter option is far harder than it may appear. Whether you are forcing yourself to write material for a certain genre/audience because it helped you get your start, or make it a point to play the same cities every time you tour because you know people will come to your shows, every artist faces numerous challenges to their comfort zone if they want to take their career to the next level.
You want to write the next hit song? You want to play arenas instead of basements? You want to be sponsored by Gibson and Orange? The biggest obstacle you have to overcome to reach these goals is stepping outside your own comfort zone. Money, geography, and everything else is just another excuse for not taking it upon yourself to make something from nothing. It will not be easy, and there is no promise things will work out for the best in the end, but if you do not take chances in life you are holding yourself back from realizing your true potential.
If you really want to take your career further you must step outside your comfort zone and the best way to start doing that is by setting an attainable short-term goal. It can be anything you want – writing five new songs a month, booking two shows a day, attending a music business conference, reading some books on better marketing techniques – just set a goal, a deadline, and stick to it.
This post is part of a new series on what it means to be a professional. Those who make a career in music do so because they abandon their comfort zones to expand their horizons. Click here to read the previous entry in this series.
