Why Do You Sing? | Learning How to Connect with Your Motivation to Avoid Burnout

By answering one simple question, you can re-align with what brings you joy as a singer, and avoid (or find your way back from) burnout. This question is: why do you sing? When we’re working in the area of music it’s easy to get caught up and stressed out about everything you’re doing. As you get more involved in the day-to-day tasks that come along with becoming someone who makes their money doing music, you may be focusing on your marketing, your admin tasks… and less and less goes to singing and music.

So, I want you to take the time to stop and reflect today about why you sing. I truly think that being able to connect with the WHY behind your music will help you keep the joy and creativity of singing while you’re pursuing the business side of it. It will also help you avoid (and even get out of) burnout that can come with feeling overwhelmed as an artist and performer.

Why do you sing?

I know it might feel like this is a silly question, but I’m here to tell you that it’s not. I think the knee-jerk reaction is to say “well, because I like it.” But, knowing the answer to this questions is crucial to your success and sanity as a singer. When we lose sight of why we want to sing and be a musician, the road to burnout and stress becomes a lot easier to go down.

Everyone’s answer will be different, and that’s okay. We’re all different people. Whether you sing because you love it, because it’s fun, or because it helps you feel like yourself, that’s the kind of feeling we want to focus on. But I also want to encourage you to dig a little bit deeper than that, too. Close your eyes and really try to isolate how you feel about singing and performing and why you do it. This is usually when the artists I work with realize that they have something they want to share with the world. As you begin to understand the deeper meaning of why YOU sing, you’ll be able to draw on that when you feel depleted or overwhelmed.

What do you mean?

For example, if you sing because you love being able to express yourself (for yourself) and start to create music for everyone else, you may find yourself becoming more burnt out. By being able to go back to that thought (“I make music for myself to share my thoughts and emotions with the world”), you’ll be able to refocus your energy as an artist and focus on what makes sense for you. Not for the whole world.

Or perhaps you sing because you love the challenge. When you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s time to get creative with that challenge again. Try to find new exercises or create new arrangements with your songs. Maybe consider breaking down riffs or complex instrumental solos. Find something to challenge you again and spark that drive IF the reason you sing is because you enjoy the challenge or ‘skill’ aspect of it.

Let’s dig deeper….

In this weeks’ video, I’m diving into specific reasons that you might sing. I hope that walking through this exercise helps you focus on why you became a singer and why you put so much time, energy, love, and investment into it. Today’s video helps you to get clear with your reason for singing so that you can do one of two things: 1) avoid the path of overwhelm, doubt, and frustration as you pursue music OR 2) get yourself off the road of ‘burn out’ right now and get back to feeling inspired, clear, and creative!

Whether you’re feeling energized right now or feeling the grind, diving a little deeper into this question, and your answer for it, helps immensely!