(This is a copy/paste from a separate subreddit that was removed. Hoping to get some ideas and discussion going here).
I've recently realized that I'm a naturally competitive person, with these two points in mind:
A) I generally don't seek out competition, and in fact, whenever I can, I actively try to avoid it. Sometimes it creates a slurry of excitement/anxiety within my body that's hard to differentiate between the two, and it can be quite uncomfortable. People who've been in athletics in their life probably know this feeling all too well.
B) BUT, when I do find myself in a competitive situation that I can't avoid, I generally rise to the occasion with good success. This has generally held true for me in athletics, work, and when I studied art in school.
The problem is that this tenacity, work-ethic, and desire to win tends to only apply to external competitive influences. I lack the general discipline it takes to impose self competition. It's so much more difficult to create that "chip on my shoulder", or the "other team" scenarios when it's all self-imposed; it feels fake and forced.
My question is: as a solo musician, are there ways to realistically create that external competition? By "realistic", I don't mean, "In 30 days I'm going to sell more albums than The Beatles!". That's just stupid, right? But what are some smaller, REAL, goals that a person can strive toward that are primarily EXTERNALLY driven? I feel like I need an active fight against "something" so that I know what I'm up against, so that I can make the right maneuvers to overcome it. I am envisioning some kind of buddy/accountability system, but for music creation. Or are there low-key music competitions that frequently happen?
I hope this doesn't come off sounding like I'm trying to make myself out to be some sort of "come at me bro!" kind of a person. I don't wish anyone harm, and I'm not looking to conquer the world. And I don't for a second think that I'm unique in my overall outlook here. It's just that I'm looking back on my life as a 37 year old, I can see most successes in my life stemmed from competitive situations where I was forced to rise to certain occasions. I'm looking to embrace that side of my character as I think it might lead me to more successes.
This was kind of a weird post, I suppose, but it's been eating at me for a few days, and I just wanted to get some input. Thanks for reading.
TLDR: What can a competitive person do to gamify the music creation process, and/or bring external competition into their process so as to keep that "edge, chip on the shoulder, drive, etc"?
Submitted January 15, 2021 at 12:37PM by IcyWarp https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/kxwxl6/gamification_competition_challenges/?utm_source=ifttt