Cyclical Motivation Theory For Producers
Thinking about my students...
Let's lump them all into one student, Kevin.
When Kevin started, what was his motivation?
To get better.
He wanted to sound better.
He could hear his sound getting better and that was motivation.
At least in the short term.
He also got some external validation.
On calls, people would tell him how much better he was sounding.
But what happens to that motivation when you reach the level of marginal gains?
Where, when you hop on calls, it's small pieces of feedback.
You're not getting as much encouragement because the quality level of your music is expected to be high.
What happens then?
My hypothesis is that you need to switch to extrinsic motivation.
You need real world results.
You need the buzz and the high of people signing, playing, and loving your music.
But what happens when that runs dry too?
For example, someone like Chris Lake.
What happens then?
Well, you could start a label.
You could branch out into other entrepreneurial ventures that offshoot from your music.
You could sell fizzy drinks. You could start a festival.
But that's not what we're talking about.
We're talking about making music.
How do you keep going there?
You could start making new genres.
But again, that's not what we're on about.
What I'm getting to is...
You're going to go back to intrinsic motivation.
You're going back to making music for yourself.
You become driven again by vision.
Vision for each song.
Vision for your sets.
Vision for your sound.
So this journey of motivation would follow this progression (or cycle):
- Inside
- Outside
- Inside
At least, that's what I've observed with a little extrapolation.
So that's my hypothesis right now.
Call it, the Cyclical Motivation Theory For Producers.