The Dink Network

If you compare your work to other peoples constantly, you're just gonna make everything harder on yourself by thinking you could never be as skilled or talented as them, and you'll just end up giving up and never going anywhere. I'm struggling with this too with my music. My lyric writing, which has never been good, has slowly evolved and improved as I've put more effort and meaning into what I'm trying to write. This existential breakdown I had last month has helped to inspire a couple new songs I've been progressively working on as a coping mechanism to get past my depression, and also to become more skilled at writing. Where it's started to evolve is that I'm trying to shake the mentality of the formulaic structure of how I used to write and instead I'm slowly trying to write better, less structured songs for a more personal and unique style. It's not something that comes easily to me but I'm putting a lot more time into my lyrics. Now, if I compared what I write to some of my favorite musicians and their epic lyrics, well I'd probably be in the same boat and stop trying before I even got started. The same goes for my drumming. If I can even be half as good a lyricist or drummer as my idols, I'd be okay with that. I won't let their talent overshadow mine, because I'm a different person from them, and I have my own style, talents, and ambitions.

I found this song on Youtube completely by accident a few days ago, and I hate myself both for finding it and liking the crap out of it, but the important part is the meaning behind the song. If you try to live up to perfection, you'll just disappoint yourself. But if you be yourself you can break free, do your own thing, and be happy. At least, that's what I get out of the song. Honestly, I found this song at the time I needed it most. This song has helped me realize that I just need to do my own thing, and if it fails, well I'll just keep at it.

I bring all this up mostly because in the last couple months I've gotten the sense that both of us are going through similar things in some way or another, and I just wanted to share my perspective on my own problems and how I'm trying to deal with them and move on with my life.