Before I begin, I want to say: I'm not asking for career advice. I'm asking for purpose advice.
So, I've invested the last 10 years of my life into practicing music and whatnot. Yes, I'm another wannabe musician, but I'm not blind to reality. Within the last three or four years, I decided to make that my life. I accepted the likelihood of never finding an actual job in music, and possibly living in poverty. I'm still okay with living in poverty. Right now, there's nothing out there that even comes close to being as fulfilling as music is for me. Everything else I've tried, physics, psychology, etc. has all been a passing interest, or something I'm already lagging behind everyone else in.
I know it's still early in my life, I'm only 21, but I feel like all my studying is going to waste. I no longer qualify for the degree I'm going for, and I just don't hold a candle to any of my peers. I feel like my personal goals have become out of my reach. I don't know if this is what I'm meant to do. I'm scared to admit that music may not be where I'm meant to be, and that all my work has been for essentially nothing. I'm scared to venture out into other territory and discover I'm shit at those things as well.
I'm following my dream. I'm doing the one thing I had some semblance of competence in, and I'm slowly becoming a failure in it. Fucking now what?
Either stay determined and become better, work harder or give up and look for something else. In the end, do what makes you happy.
>I'm still okay with living in poverty.
Spoken like a true faggot that has never lived in actual poverty where you can't satisfy your basic human needs.
Music is a gamble. You do not make it your regular job, you keep it on the side and advertise yourself and hope for the best. You need to be your own manager, being a manager is somewhat of a real job. Being successful in music is not about being good, it's about being popular.
TL;DR: If you love music, get an actgual job and keep it on the side. If you want to get money from music, you need to treat it like a business.
Few points anon,
Your approach needs to change first, friend.
There is no "what you are meant to do". There is no single skill, career area or whatever, that you fit into. That's rhetorical garbage. I'm a registered nurse, I suck at science and math. I started my history degree and switched over after two years. The degree sucked, but I love my work, for so many reasons, and I'm told I'm good at it.
Undergraduate education is a joke, don't judge the jobs of a degree/field based on 1st and 2nd year courses of the field.
Also your career shouldn't be your hobby. Mixing pleasure and work ruins both. Isolate them from each other for better appreciation of both.
Try stuff that's opposite from what you think you want. I thought I wanted to teach history, I ended up being a trauma room nurse who enjoys being with patients and their families. If I listened to my high school guidance counsellor I'd be in the military.
Don't define yourself by what you do or how others perceive you. It's cheesy, but it's invaluable. Fuck your peers. Your life is yours, own it. If your happy and can live off of selling bathtubs, that's what matters. tldr: Learn to be content.
If you find you're bad at other things, move on. hardly anybody is great at something when they first try it, even for the first few years. If it stirs you, practice and chase it.
good luck
>>16616935
>Spoken like a true faggot that has never lived in actual poverty where you can't satisfy your basic human needs.
My grocery and gas budget is a hundred bucks a month. So how about 'fuck you?'
>>16616949
>Gas
>Meaning he has a car/bike
>One hundred fucking bucks for groceries and gas
>I'm so poor!
My fucking sides
>>16616955
Get him!
I've seen poverty in a 3rd world country. Not pretty
>>16616067
practice moar
i was there once. for a while, i was one of the best in my particular geographical region. in time, new talent emerged, and meeting those people showed me what i was lacking- the gift. some have it, some do not. those that do not need to practice their asses off to keep up with those that do. ultimately, i could no longer support myself while keeping up with my practice regimen/keeping music as my top priority. music ended up taking a back seat for a while while i trained for my current profession. i now play music in my (abundant) free time, and i enjoy it more because i dont put a fuckton of pressure on it since i dont need to rely on music to pay the bills.
>>16616955
Okay, fine. I have it a lot better than others. Thanks for taking "I don't mind being poor" which is generally understood as meaning "I don't mind living in a shitty apartment, living on a budget of 10,000 dollars a year, eating pop tarts and ramen noodles for every meal" and stretching it to mean "I don't mind starving like a kid in Africa." You're not putting anyone in their place by changing the implied meaning of their words, then acting like you understand what they're saying better than they do. Trust me, you're not morally superior, you're just an asshole with a chip on his shoulder out to prove "those bratty millennials how easy they got it."
Also, thanks for the responses, guys. You've given me a lot to think about
