Hello!   Really hope you're having a great week.

Continuing the theme of what or how you may be stopped from achieving your music career goals, this blog is all about your time.

When I talk to artists, musicians and people within the music industry, the barrier that seems to stop you from moving forward the most, is your lack of time – for some of you, your perceived lack of time is an avoidance tactic – where you are making your lack of time an excuse as to why you haven't done something. For others, you genuinely believe that you have little or no time to focus on your music career goals.

So if you are one of those that fit either of these categories, I'm now going to challenge you around your lack of time. Because if you really want to move forward in your music career, you'll make the time – yes of course you have other obligations such as your day job, looking after your kids, keeping a home, college and homework, revision et al, but generally speaking you are awake for around 16 hours a day. Half of that may be taken up with your day job and travelling to and from – but what do you do for the rest of the time?

It's my guess that if you were to make a timetable showing each half hour of your day from when you wake until you go to sleep, and enter into it your daily routines – your must do's - that you will see spaces of time that you are currently wasting! Okay so there may not be large chunks of time all neatly set together, but in one half hour you could practice your guitar, in another you could continue writing your latest song, practice singing, respond to your MySpace comments/emails/add some more friends/update your gigging schedule/post a bulletin- the list could go on!   You get my drift, I'm sure.

It's all about your choices – yes you may be tired after a hard day at college or work, and yes it is easier to veg out on the sofa in front of the telly, but that won't help you move forward in your music goals and help you achieve your dreams. Watching the TV every night becomes a habit very quickly and the soaps are very easy to get sucked into – right? You just have to watch the next episode to see what happens (!) – I'll tell you what doesn't happen – you don't move forward!

So this is a big kick up the backside – start looking at where you spend your time and start scheduling into your timetable when and where you are going to undertake specific tasks that will surely move you in the right direction. So, that's another job to sort before you can do this – write out a list of tasks you need or want to do, to move you closer to achieving your music career goals.

Then prioritise them – what is going to shift you forwards the most? Once you've done that, then schedule them into your timetable, and then TAKE ACTION – stay focussed and just do it!

If you are being pulled in all directions by other people wanting some of your time, then again it is about your choice and about balance – yes do go and have some fun – but be aware that by saying "yes" to one thing, you may well be saying "no" to something or someone else. In which case, it may serve you better to make sure that your timetable is a monthly one, so you can schedule your friends and family into some slots that are available, making sure that you have that balance that is necessary to nurture your physical, mental and emotional health, as well as your creativity!

Any problems – comment me or go onto my website where you can download a free report around balancing your life alongside your music career! http://www.bravura-group.com

Have fun !

Linz