Developing Low Expectations

Most songwriters and performers in the history of songwriting and performing have been hobbyists or moonlighters.

But over the last 50 years expectations have changed, and those of us who have been working at our craft for years and take our creative work seriously, sometimes have a sense of failure, disappointment, and even resentment if we haven't managed to "break through" yet. Which in our own minds probably means getting the recognition and money that our undoubtedly fantastic creations deserve!

Leaving aside whether we're actually as good as we think we are, that outlook is still very much a thing among we singer/songwriters of a certain vintage. And despite the fact that all the evidence suggests the golden age of popular music is over.

But if the "songwriting as a route to fame and fortune" myth still exists in our heads, then I think it's necessary, if only for our own mental health, to develop a different outlook.

And I think it's very possible that "lower expectations" as to what success constitutes as a creative artist, can have a very positive effect on the creative work we do produce. Because the work becomes our focus, not the "success".

That's a good thing, isn't it?