Show Notes
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Transcription
MY PATH
Hey everyone, I’m Veronica Start, your holistic vocal coach. In this podcast series, I’m exploring the seven psychological foundations that I believe shape your singing—helping you sing with real soul. In previous episodes, we discussed Emotions, Identity, Mentors, Core Power, Messaging, and the Audience. Since we’re building layers of understanding throughout this series, I recommend checking out those episodes first. Today is the final episode of the series which is about building your Path as a Singer.
If you’ve been following this podcast series, you should have a basic understanding about how our nervous systems, our hearts, our voices all weave together. And most importantly, how your sense of purpose is directly tied to how anchored you feel in who you are.
Being a singer can be your great calling, your vocation, the centre of your life… or singing can simply be for pleasure, for healing, for the sheer joy of it. But what is true for every single one of us is this: No one has a soul like yours. No one has a voice like yours. And someone, somewhere, has a lock that is waiting for the key that only you carry.
Now it’s time to learn the steps to forge your own path and live the life of a singer.
Carrying on from the podcasts on Identity and Messaging, we talked about how your values show up in what you choose to sing and how you sing it. Now we want a plan that is not only strategic but achievable, sustainable and most importantly, inspirational.
Every plan needs a goal, where you want to go, so here’s an overview of how we build that mission statement.
As an example, let’s invent a singer/songwriter named Jane who sings quietly with her ukelele and has an introspective style.
First, Jane needs to do some work to define her values. Then she needs to understand her core beliefs and who she is. After this work, her value statement could be distilled into something like:
“My name is Jane Doe. I believe that small is beautiful and I desire to create quirky pop songs about relationships.”
Now this value statement will feed into Janes vision, which will clarify her meaning and the message she wants sends out to the audience. In other words, what Sasha wants to tell the world, the gift she’s offering to them. Jane’s vision statement might be:
“I want to show the audience how to look at life in a surprising ways.”
Now, let’s look at the desired result of her career or the end goal of the plan. We’re bringing the values, vision into the mission: the clear, action plan that turns the dream into reality. So Janes mission statement could be:
My mission is to write and record my first indie pop album and to show the world that quiet people can inspire hearts with powerful insights.
So with this mission statement, Jane is bringing all of those feelings and dreams out of her head and out into the sunlight, bringing them into consciousness.
The very act of creating your mission statement, instantly gives your body a sense of safety because those little voices inside yourself, those dreams floating around in your subconscious, are being heard and respected.
You mission statement may take a bit of time to refine as you evolve, but having a compass to help direct your path will be a defining moment of inspiration.
Now, we all understand that having Big dreams can feel overwhelming - especially when there’s no evidence yet that you “deserve” them or that other people believe in them, too. In fact, most people report that they don’t have support from family and friends to help them with their goals. And this is exactly why we must work to have a sustainable plan that strengthens us.
The lack of affirmation around you might trick you into thinking that achievement in music isn’t easy, and that you’re destined for a really hard life of struggle and pain. This way of looking at things is to accept that we have to climb a mountain, to suffer, to compare, to keep pushing and maybe, just maybe - with enough grit and will power - we’ll arrive at a day that we feel good about ourselves and be sitting on a bag of money.
Well - This old model is – quite frankly – insane. Not only is it not realistic for most of us, it’s not even humane.
I’d like you to really look at this graphic and pay attention to what’s happening in your body as you read these words.
Personally, I look at that body climbing and it feels desperate, disempowering, like I’ve lost before I even started. How are we supposed to feel inspired or motivated to be creative and sing from our souls?
With each effort to toughen yourself up, it can feel like we need to punish ourselves and we need to become someone else to earn our rewards. It’s no wonder we avoid following our dreams!
I can’t repeat this enough: to successfully commit to a plan to achieve a creative goal in a wholesome, soulful way, we need a sense of safety.
So, our singer friend Jane is beginning to establish her path of safety by incorporating her subconscious desires, her soulful values, and her dreams into her Mission Statement.
Now - let’s flip this achievement model upside down and put love, safety, and pleasure at the top, every single day and let it flow down to feed her mission. I call this The Funnel of Love.
Since your nervous system was literally designed for connection, play and joy, let’s give it daily proof that life is safe, and you are winning – then you get real, pure energy, the kind of energy that makes singing feel like flying.
Each of these icons represent a daily quick win, an easy, guaranteed outcome that gives you a healthy dopamine hit every day that will soothe your brain and energize the steps that follow. These aren’t in any particular order of priority - all of them are things we can do every day to give us pleasure and care.
First, make a connection with your Source, your spirit. You can do two minutes of breathwork, say a prayer when you wake up, or go for a forest bath. If you’re not spiritually inclined, just have a look at nature to inspire your sense of place in the world. Let’s keep it simple and pleasurable.
Next is to make a connection to your childhood innocence. Get yourself a cute toy or maybe a squeeze toy to put it in your pocket or car or keychain - somewhere you will see it every day.
Next, connect with a person every day. Do one text to a friend, one smile, or an interaction at a bus stop. Reach out to people and connect with them to remind yourself that you are a part of the world.
Next is Nutrition: Eat the foods that give you pleasure and energy, foods that make you feel like you’re doing something nice for yourself without causing damage.
Then, of course, you have to move your body in some way every day to get the blood flowing and the oxygen going, release tensions and emotions that get trapped in there. Walking in nature is a great way to combine spiritual, mental, and physical health.
And last but not least, we need a non-negotiable date with our pillows. Everything in your world will be affected by the quality of your sleep. I mean everything, emotions, stamina, appetite... You are at your most vulnerable when you are tired. If you can’t sleep well one night, make sure you catch up on it as soon as you can so your brain and body can recharge.
Remember: Love is energy.
In my course, Sing with Soul in 7 Weeks, all of these Pleasure & Care activities are categorized in a special list called your Energy Bank.
This is about pleasurable self-care that will establish a mindset of safety. And a mindset of safety means that you’ll naturally have energy and motivation. You will WANT to plan for the actions that bring your mission statement into reality.
Now, before we make a plan of any kind, we need to know where to put our focus. This means taking inventory of the resources, realizing what you already have, what you already know; and what skills you need to develop to get you there. These are our Micro-Missions.
And yes, in my Sing with Soul course, there is a worksheet for this called the Micro-Mission Bank where you track all of your existing resources in columns of: Resources you have, Resources you want, topics you need to research, tech stuff you need to buy, communities that can support you and books or websites.
The Micro-Mission Bank is where you list and find the actions that you plot into your weekly planner, prioritized by urgency.
This Funnel of Love is designed to flow your energy, your love to feed those little micro-missions which are little echoes of the big mission. Micro-missions like a core breathing meditation, a vocal lesson, finding a rehearsal space, choosing a microphone, or joining a facebook group for singers.
Each micro-mission will feel pleasurable instead of punishing because it’s connected to an overall plan and mission statement, bringing your vision to life.
The final layer of flow is into the Project phase or the Creative Process.
Here is where your energy and research culminates in an actual project, like planning to record a demo or an album. Things like planning your repertoire, marketing, getting bookings, meeting producers, rehearsing for sessions, then performing, then releasing the recording for others to hear.
Doesn’t this sound exciting? Isn’t this what we are dreaming of, living this life?
Now this is the gift. The creative process itself - the singing, the writing, the sharing of your voice becomes the reward. As Sting once said: Music is its own reward.
To become a singer is not about money or awards, it is the privilege and honour of living the lifestyle of a singer and to bring the creative process into your persona.
There’s a lot more detail covered in my course materials where you design your own Mission Control Toolkit but there’s nothing stopping you from from making a simple plan on on your own.
This is basic project management that you can do in your own way, but you do have to Write it down to eliminate confusion. Why? Because Confusion is where doubt grows and confusion depletes your energy. Clarity is where confidence is born and competency creates confidence. Also, achieving small wins every day is the most effective way to prune the seeds of bad habits before they take can even take root.
When you take the swirling dreams in your head and actually write them down (even on a napkin), something almost magical happens – but it is scientifically proven magic!
On a mental level, you are handing the job to your reticular activating system (that little brain filter that decides what you notice). Suddenly the world starts highlighting exactly the people, songs, opportunities, and ideas you need. It’s like upgrading from a fuzzy radio station to crystal-clear signal. The reticular activating system is just your brain filtering the reality around you to align with the targets you’re defining.
On a spiritual level, having a plan is You telling your soul, ‘I’m taking this seriously. I’m showing up for YOU.’
Every list is a love letter to your future self. Every completed micro-mission is showing your nervous system: ‘See? We’re safe. We’re moving. We’re becoming. Oh, wait. We’re HERE.’
Making a path, having a plan, is not about rigidity. It’s about creating a solid bedframe that you can place your mattress on and bounce from. If you stray from your plan, remember, your bedframe, your structure will always be there to catch you.
And as a singer, you do this because someone, somewhere, longs to hear your voice. You were born for this.
So that’s my Step 7 to Singing with Soul, - how your mission statement, your energy bank and your micro-mission planning can transform confusion into clarity, fear into fuel, and bring far-away fantasy into the reality of your daily life.
If you’re interested in deep dive support for your career path or any aspect of your singing, I am available for consultations and don’t forget to sign up to the waiting list for the next Sing with Soul in 7 Weeks course!
Bye for now! See you Soon!