As you embrace your obsession for music and for the guitar, you deny average. Maintaining this attitude fuels your potential and more skills will continue to be revealed to you. 

Obsession is what keeps people motivated and more important, it is what keeps musical people creating. It is not money or awards but rather it is all of the possibilities for further growth out of creativity and motivation... 

The other evening I spoke to one of my students about the importance of obsession in a musicians career and the role it plays in having success. He was saying to me how difficult is was for him to stay driven with his guitar studies. And, how hard it is for him to remain motivated after reaching some levels of success that he's already had with his playing.

Getting better at anything has a lot to do with learning how to get passed those internal and external obstacles and how to maintain your passion. Through my own musical life, average people tried to talk me out of my desire to be involved in the music business, suggesting my ideas were simply unrealistic fantasies. But, because I was so obsessed with music and with playing guitar, I thankfully didn't listen to them.

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THE "ENERGIZED" PERSONALITY:
I don’t think people need to make a choice to be obsessed, I think we all are obsessed with something however, as we grow up we are talked out of it. 

For instance, these days many young people are labeled by their elementary and jr. high teachers as; ADD, ADHD, OCD. Back when I was a kid, these labels didn't exist. Some kids were just "full of energy." And, the teachers found a way to communicate with them. Now, they put those kids on drugs. Having high energy is a gift, and back when I was a kid people actually celebrated that!

If you want to reach for the stars, you'll need to deny the labels and instead embrace your energy as your gift - rather than a deficiency. And, no matter what other people say, don’t apologize for this. This energy is a compliment to you - not a hindrance.



WHAT IS "SELF-MOTIVATION?"
Highly motivated people all have a fuel that gives them a can’t-quit, won’t-quit, accelerator-to-the-floor monster ambition inside attitude. 

And, it grows as they grow - regardless of anyone's age. In fact, the older that highly motivated people get (and the more success they experience), the more obsessed they become with the reality that they can create more.

This is why it is so important to embrace your obsessions and deny average. Chase your potential and even more potential will continue to be revealed to you. This is what keeps people motivated and it is also what keeps people creating. It is not money or awards but possibilities.

You cannot get satisfied. Becoming satisfied with what you have done only means someone or something in your life or your belief systems has convinced you to settle for average. 

Those who are stuck at "average" in the music business are threatened by the obsessed. Thus, they spend their time trying to stop the obsessed from being obsessed. The "average" are sadly too busy and too stuck trying to make sense of when they traded in their obsession for average!

CREATING THE "OBSESSED" PERSONALITY:
People who are crazy about guitar and crazy about learning music are heavily involved in a lot of musical areas. When I hire people for bands or for gigs, I am looking for other obsessed people who know how to direct their obsessive personalities. 

I am constantly looking for people who are highly motivated, dreamers that can ride the music and love the musical experiences. That takes energy, commitment, responsibility, dedication. However, they better have their attitude on the same page. If their attitude is off-base from what is required for making the gig /project a success, it will scar both the motivation and the entire vibe of what it happening on the job.



CRUSH DOUBT - FUEL YOUR DRIVE:
To keep up with the workload every day requires that you get energized. In fact, so much energy will be required from your crazy insane obsession with guitar and music, that there will barely exist any room for the fear of whether you'll accomplish your goals or not.

To most people this seems next to impossible. But, it is vital to your drive and to the flow of your personality. Because when you are experiencing fear you start to shut-down, and self-doubt creeps in, and these feelings are a real killer.

Once you get into a strong mindset of being able to quickly crush your self-doubt, then you'll be able to start embracing your obsessions - rather than explain or apologize for them, (which is what a lot of musicians do).

By learning to flip everything around in your mind, to form better obsessions and to feed the drive within you - a new chapter will have to begin. In every area, you will start using any fear that arises to re-direct yourself into even more motivation.

Doubt is a dream killer but fear can be an indicator of what you should do. Fear is an alarm bell for taking on new directions and to take on better ways to adjust your focus. 

Most people are so filled with doubt that they are unable to believe in themselves. Sadly this has either been instilled in them by by others, or it has been developed in them by their own sef-talk. 

There's an old aboriginal saying that goes something to the effect of, "Doubt is not native to the individual, it is something a person teaches to themselves." I absolutely agree with that.



BE OBSESSED WITH MUSIC - BE OBSESSED WITH LIFE:
Most musicians, 99.999% of them, will reach a point where they are obsessed in their musical life. Sadly, in their very early years, school teachers, parents, relatives and even friends will tend to try and talk them out of their musical obsession. Or, they will be scared out of it by their own fears. It is truly a horrible shame.

If you're obsessed with music now, feel happy and get excited. Most people never figure out what they are obsessed with in life, because they’ve been taught to deny their obsessions thinking they are nothing more than fantasies.

Find a musical idea, a guitar technique, a musical piece, or a group project - something, anything musical, and drive yourself into obsession with it. 

Quit denying your dreams. Own them and feed them because doing so has massive amounts of energy and creativity associated to doing it. Make a list of all the great musicians that you admire. Look at that list daily, pin it to the wall. And, realize that those musicians have walked this planet embracing their obsessions. And, you can too.

When they failed, (yes, everyone fails here and there), they didn’t apologize or try to make others uncomfortable, or blame others. Instead, they embraced their obsession for music and poured everything into it. Were they neurotic? Maybe? Were they unstable? Could be? Did they contribute? Most certainly.