A mantra of mine for the last couple years, has been a simple, two word phrase, that I find myself going back to again and again.  The words are simply "Keep Going".  These two words are so simple, yet contain profound power.  When I find myself struggling or feeling frustrated, I remind myself to simply "Keep Going".  When I'm celebrating victory or success I also remind myself to "keep going" in order to continue moving forward.

Now you might be thinking this is sort of an obvious idea, but don't let its apparent simplicity fool you.  The idea "keep going" is powerful.  I've had a lot of ups and downs over the last several years. I won't bore you with the details.  I've simply experienced typical, run of the mill challenges that we all face as a part of life.  But when I look back over the last few years and take a step back to reflect, I feel so much further ahead, in business, music and life in general, that I'm amazed, and it's all because I've simply "kept going" through the tough times (and the good times).

In life it's all too easy to have a bad day or a string of bad days  and allow it to sap the energy and motivation we need to keep pursuing and eventually realize our goals.  Whatever those goals are, whether they are music related or not. But we have to keep going if we want to get to where we want to go.  Pretty obvious right? We have to be "in it to win it".

I was reminded of this simple principle recently when I collaborated with Aaron Saloman on our new "How To Make Money With Stock Music Libraries" course.  It's taken Aaron several years of very consistent effort, even in the face of frustration and setbacks, to reach the point where he's making good money from his licensing efforts.  But he kept going, despite a slow start, and now he's reaping the rewards.

I've seen this same, universal principle play out over and over in a variety of forms with a variety of people.  Yes, sometimes people get lucky  and stumble into success, but more often than not, for most of us, success is simply a result of consistent, diligent effort over time.

Ift's easy to get down on ourselves and think we've tried enough, or we've done enough and think maybe our dreams just aren't possible, maybe we don't have what it takes or maybe life and the universe just aren't fair.  It's a tempting position to take and it's certainly easy to find evidence to support this.

But be honest with yourself.  Have you really given your dreams everything you got?  Have you really worked hard enough to achieve your goals?  How bad do you really want to succeed?  I don't think there are right or wrong answers to these questions. Success is personal and can only be defined by you. But one thing is clear: if you're not where you want to be, you're going to need to keep going in order to get there.

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