You’re not the only one who is feeling isolated or wondering, “What next?” when live performances and recordings are all but stopped.

Some musicians have been stuck at home wondering about the same thing. Many have turned to songwriting in an attempt to one day share their new material with an actual audience.

It’s hard for artists to face their doubts and demons. We can be our harshest critics. If you are prone to doubt, you may be more likely to doubt yourself.

We’ll talk about why songwriting is important and how you can build confidence.

Creativity is a product of confidence.

Confidence is a crucial part of a creative mindset, even a mindset that doesn’t like to admit it. It is a key component of solving problems and generating new ideas. Confidence helps you gather and evaluate ideas. You can decide what to do with them based on whether they are useful, interesting, beautiful, or challenging.

Self-confidence is about trusting your abilities and choices. It is part of who you are as a creative person, an individual aware of your skills and confident in what you can offer.

It’s not the same thing to be confident and then overdo it. What I mean is that you should be able to easily access your songwriting zone and come up with new ideas. You can then explore and develop these ideas consistently.

You can navigate the music business with confidence

It is impossible to predict whether a particular song or an artist will be a “success.” In the music industry, there is no direct correlation between hard work and rewards. It doesn’t matter how hard you work, how well you network, or what team members you have.

Market uptake can be affected by several unknown variables, including luck, taste cycles, and global events such as COVID-19.

It’s not surprising that most artists find the music industry intimidating. Even if one has had a lot of success in the past (i.e., can I repeat that? ), confidence is often undermined when starting a new project. There is no level playing field or equality. Risk is asymmetrical – a few hits but a sea of misses.

Here is where your confidence can be improved.

Confidence doesn’t come from comparing yourself to others, their abilities, or successes. You must measure your success against yourself and not the noisy and loud world.

You can overcome your lack of self-confidence with these tools

We know confidence can be primed positively. You can boost your confidence by taking small steps, whether you have recently been rejected or knocked down or if you are hesitant to take on a new challenge.

Here are some tools you can use to combat your lack of self-confidence. No “one-size-fits-all” solution exists, but you may find that one or more of these resonate with your situation.

Decisions

Inaction is always better than inaction.

Decide on what you like and how to do it. Decide how to make the process enjoyable. Decide on what you value and why. Set meaningful goals, decide what you can do now, and be ready to act.

You can fix anything if you decide something.

Competence

You should work on your skills and improve in a certain area, whether it’s lyric writing, home production, guitar playing, or other. Ask someone for feedback or help, finish the online course that you purchased, and practice more. Acquiring new skills will boost your confidence immediately.

Momentum

The small wins will add up over time. You can write two songs per week or one song per day. To get you going, create a playlist with inspirational songwriters. Can you connect online with your collaborators? Make a plan to finish a song by the end of the month.

Confidence is built when you track your progress. Rewarding yourself will help you to maintain that.

Optimism

You can choose the approach and perspective. You can replace the permanent (“the disease will ruin my career”) with the specific (“I’m able to crack this chorus rhyme”) and external (“I wonder whether another singer could turn this bridge around ?”).

You can change the way you think by switching from a negative to a positive mindset. A positive attitude has been proven to boost confidence. If that’s not possible, you can fake it until you make it.

Community

Try to mingle and mix with people who share your values and are supportive of you. This means that you’re probably looking at live streaming, online connections, and watch parties. Don’t forget that you should meet up with friends in person every once in a while if possible.