Well here you are...

Still trying to succeed in the music industry. You told everyone in high school that you would be a "star" one day, and some actually believed it. That was a long time ago. You're getting older and more frustrated with each passing year. Your friends and family no longer ask what's up with your music career anymore, but they are all secretly wondering when you are going to get a "real" job and let go of your showbiz fantasies.

So what happened?

What usually happens is SSD. What is that you say? SSD stands for Self Sabotage Disorder.

In many cases this illness - which affects 8 out of 10 music artists - is hard to detect because of the constant feigning of false confidence and exaggerated accomplishments. To observers with an inexperienced eye (i.e. friends, family members and lovers), immediate detection and diagnosis is difficult to make. When left untreated, SSD can be fatal to your career. The symptoms are: laziness, procrastination, lack of follow-through, lack of focus, lack of sacrifice, and overall lack of commitment.

Is this YOU or someone you know?

Well there is hope. There is a cure for SSD. It's called professionalism.

Professionalism is defined in Merriam Websters' dictionary as: the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person.

By correcting behavioral issues that impede your progress, you will stop sabotaging your career and remove the barriers to your success in the process. How can you do this? With a simple but courageous reality check which can be administered RIGHT NOW. Answer the following question honestly:

Have you really done the work that's necessary to ensure your success?

Success in any industry is an incremental process. You must first know what work needs be done (the requirements for success) to embrace this process. Then you must conduct yourself in such a way that makes the fulfillment of these requirements possible.

Regardless of what you are trying to accomplish, it's industry consensus that hard work and sacrifice is the key. Industry professionals will tell you that, so will artists who have succeeded. Those who succeed do not take one step forward and two steps back (try it and see how much forward progress you make); they make quantum leaps to get ahead. It was Einstein who said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over, and over and expecting to get a different result.

Has what what you've been doing year in and year out helped you achieve the success you want? If not, it's time to do some things differently.

Start by taking the small steps that people don't see, but are large in the grand scheme of your overall success. Steps such as treating your affairs like business affairs; Following-up on opportunities that will advance your career, and offering something of greater value to those you work with and for.

In other words, being a professional and displaying professionalism. It's a guaranteed way to get different results, and prevent the further sabotaging of your success.

Article Source: http://www.articleset.com