New Year, Same You, Stronger Intentions

New calendars don’t change music careers—clear intention does. We open the year by cutting through the hype and showing how to turn motivation into measurable progress, even when the February slump hits. From setting visible goals to building grit on low-energy days, we map out a practical way to move your work forward with less noise and more results.

I share why vague aims like “be a songwriter” stall momentum and how specificity unlocks a path: choose a genre, define subjects and phrasing, pick your collaborators, and set deadlines you can actually track. We dig into the study side too—orchestration classes, craft books, and targeted questions to AI—to keep learning tight and useful. Fear still pops up at the blank page, so we talk through simple ways to start small, stay honest, and keep composing when confidence wobbles.

Then we shift from hustle for hustle’s sake to hustle with a destination. You’ll hear how a weekly plan, a simple timer, and protected family time can increase output without burning you out. Treating music like a profession means showing up when you don’t feel like it and honoring rest so your ears and mind reset. We close with two quick actions you can take today: write one clear goal for this quarter and cut one time thief that keeps you from the work.

If you’re ready to swap scattered effort for focused intention, hit play and build your plan with us. Subscribe, share this with a musician who needs the push, and leave a review with your one concrete goal for the quarter—we’ll cheer you on.

Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thetonikingexperience7645

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2042588/support

Rare Keys Production- https://rarekeysproduction.com

Toni King link: http://www.linktr.ee/toni.king

The Sonic Kingship Art: https://www.rhuffmusic.com/post/it-s-a-big-music-industry-so-where-do-i-fit-in

Christ The King Release link: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/toniking/christ-the-king

Transcript

Setting The Year’s Intent

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome back, everyone. This is a brand new episode of Teach One Tuesday podcast. We're going to get into some great things today, but before we do that, y'all know what it is. I'm excited, man. I'm excited about this new year, this new opportunity, um, and especially this new opportunity to continue to educate and to pass on great, amazing information so we can continue to grow together because we're doing this thing together. It's not just me giving information. Come on, right? We're doing this thing together. So we're gonna jump in here and we're talking about uh or continuing with setting the tone, intention, goals, and time for musicians. All right. And I just want to get into some stuff that I think is going to continue to set you up for the year and to give you the tools that you need uh to accomplish all that you set out today. And I want to encourage you if you haven't listened to the first episode of this year, go back and listen to the episode, the previous episode before this one. Um some great stuff in there, and I'm gonna continue with this episode. So the core message, man, of this episode is a new year doesn't change your career, a new season doesn't either. Intention does. And I want to lay the foundation for this episode. I don't want anyone to be in a fairy tale land as it pertains to accomplishing goals. Uh, because yes, everything is new, if you will, the year, the time, the the month, and all that. And and by the time this episode comes out, it's it's February already, if you can believe that. It's not going to do the work for you. You know, that's the illusion that some people are under. Every year somebody has uh uh the intentions of losing weight, and they never do it. You know what I mean? They they may go to the gym, you know, uh in the beginning a few times because it's all new. You go to the gym, you get you, you set up a subscription or whatever you call those things. Because I work out at home, so I don't know. Um, but you set your thing up, you you know, get you a gym membership, and you know, maybe get you some new clothes or whatever. It's exciting, right? It's exciting in the beginning. But as the time goes on, you know, you can't rely on just that brand because it's brand new. No, you have to have something within you that gives you the energy and the push that you need to accomplish what you need to accomplish, regardless if it's new or not. All right. So the first point I want to talk about is why uh new year motivation disappears by February. It's interesting that we are in February right now, you know. But I want to let you know that it's okay to be motivated, it's okay to use motivation, the energy and the music and the and and the videos and all that. But uh what you need to understand is that there needs to be clear intentions about what you want to do. And those clear intentions uh need to be written down, you know, and preferably somewhere where you can see the goals, see what you want to accomplish on a daily basis, you know, and and so that you're not confused, it's not just in your mind, not confused so that you don't forget, um, but it's something that is right in front of you on a daily basis. And I'll just give you one. Um, I'm working on my new album right now, Kingdom Radio 2, right? It's it's it's in front of me. Uh the date, I'm not giving dates right now, but later on the year is going to be released. But it's happening this year. Kingdom Radio 2 is being worked on right now, and it will be released, and I'm excited about it. But I have to keep that goal right in front of me. Whether I'm motivated today, tomorrow, or the week after, and the week after that, it does not matter. It needs to get done. The music needs to be written, uh, the music needs to be uh recorded, arranged, all those wonderful things. Uh, it just needs to happen. And so I need you to understand that whether I am motivated today or not, the work is getting done. And I need you to develop this mindset along with me, um, to be determined, to have grit, as they say, um, to know that you have what you need to get these things done. And do not focus on shortcomings and what you don't have. It doesn't matter. You have what you need right now to get started or to continue, and all those other things will be added to you as you go along. And so uh, I want you to jump in the spaceship of determination with me today and understand that you can do this, you can go forward, be motivated, but on the days where you're not motivated, do it anyway. Let's go, let's make it happen. All right. Uh, second point the danger of vague goals in music careers. Now, listen, to just say that you want to be uh a songwriter is not enough. All right, it is not enough. What kind of songwriter? What genre? How do you want your phrasing to be? What do you want, what is the subject matter, right? What's the overall uh goal that you have? Who do you want to write for? Are you writing for yourself? Are you writing for friends? Do you want to write for big name artists? Um, you know, do you want what is it that you want to do? And so the danger of that is that you don't really uh it's not specific enough, and you can't set really a goal to that, to just, I mean, can't set really a time frame rather, to that goal. I just want to be a songwriter. Okay, great. So the point is let's flush out, let's let's take whatever goal or goals that you have, and let's flush out the details of making this happen and uh and and where you want to go with this. And I'll give you another personal example. Here we go. I am right now taking a class. I'm always putting myself in a position to take classes and learn and grow, so it's always important to me. But I'm taking a music orchestration class, and it's not my first, but I'm taking another one, refreshing myself. I love absolutely love uh music orchestration composition. I I love it all. And so my goal, my overall big goal is to uh is to a couple of things to write for movies. I want to be a film composer, and I want to write, you know, just like the greats, man. The you know, Mozart, Beethoven, you know, uh other greats. I want to write, you know, piano sonatas and and and I want to write concertos, and I want to write, you know, uh for all the uh orchestras, jazz orchestra, uh symphony orchestra, chamber. I mean, across the board. Across the board, this is what I want to do. And I want to do it for film, I want to do it for shows. I'm not having really thought too much about video games, but that could be an area I could I can explore. But and I want to do it for myself. I want to be able to be mentioned in the in the names with those guys I just named, just a few of them, and I want to leave music here for people to enjoy and to study and to, you know, and just and pass down to their children and their family. You know, I that's something I personally want. So that's my goal. And what I'm doing right now is taking classes, and I have orchestration books, and I have uh different books for different genres and different techniques and different things that I'm doing. So I'm also using AI to, if I have certain questions, certain things I need to know. I'll go to AI and I'll and I'll put my questions in there and I'll get what I need to get. And so I'm very specific about what I'm doing and what I want to accomplish and what I want to do. And I and I think I can even be even more specific. I can even make it even more specific than that. But I just wanted to give you an example of a goal that I have and what I'm doing about it, right? What I'm doing about it, and how I have become specific in that and also uh also writing itself. I mean, you can't get away from writing, you know, uh composing and writing and orchestrating. You can't get away from it, you have to actually do it. And and I'll I'll share this with you that I've had a little bit of a fear with that, you know, sometimes not getting started with writing because you know it's daunting. It's it's a lot, you know, is it good enough? Blah, blah, blah, these things that run through your mind, but I'm working through that right now. And I wanted to share that with you because I want you to know that all of us are dealing with something. All of us are dealing with some fear of something. And so you are not alone in what you're doing, you know, and what you're trying to accomplish. Uh, we are here together. All right. So, yes, even me, I deal with fears of things and sometimes not acting on a certain part. But this year, we're making it happen, man. We're making it happen. All right, let's go on. Choose choosing intention over nonstop hustle. And I think this is a good one, man. Listen to me. You can hustle all you want. There are people who are going to a job and and um, you know, and they, yes, you can call that a hustle, I guess it is, but you know, they have this hustle mentality, but outside of that job, you have nothing else going on. You know what I mean? And so um, you know, take some time to step back from the hustle and figure out if you don't already know, figure out what you want to accomplish. What do you really want to do? There are people who are just doing stuff, right? There are people who are just doing things and calling it a hustle. Not really, you're just you're just making yourself busy, but you're not really going anywhere, right? You're not really, there's no there's no end game. You you're just doing stuff and calling it a hustle just to make yourself feel like you're, you know. Choose your goals, right? Choose what you want to do, come out of the hustle for a second, be specific about those goals and what you want to do, or at least have a deadline for something that you want to accomplish. If you don't want to call it some people don't want to, some people don't want to call it a goal, but call it something, you know, just something you want just want to get done by time, you know, by September or by October or by the end of the year, whatever it is. All right. Come out of the hustle for a second, become become specific, you know, just so that you're not headed a hundred miles per hour in uh direction um that you really didn't, you kind of sort of chose it, but you didn't, you don't really know, you're not sure. Come out of that place of uncertainty and come out of the place of just a grind because we just hear that all the time. The people that there are talking about that, they have become very specific about uh where they are going, you know, what they want to accomplish, whether it's in the music industry, whether it's in the entertainment, uh, or whether it's in the music, uh not music, uh uh, if it's acting, if it's culinary arts, whatever it is, they they have become specific about what they want. And then they have applied, yes, the mindset and the actions of hustling. But don't just hustle just for the sake of hustling because you heard on a movie or a video somewhere. No. Become specific about what you're hustling for or what you're hustling, you know, what is the hustle going towards? Where is your grit going towards? All right. Uh uh next point. What time management is, why, excuse me, why time management is a creative skill? And I think that this is very important. I've talked about this before in previous episodes. You know, um, time management for me is very important. I'll give a few examples. Um, you know, when I sit down to practice, I'm a pianist. For those who don't know, I'm a pianist and a vocalist. I do a lot of things. So, but when I sit down to play, for the most part, I am timing myself. Even if I stay longer than the timer, I'm timing it. I'm putting 20 minutes there. It just gives me a forward motion, um, making me feel like I'm going somewhere. And and if that's all the time I have for that particular thing that day, that's all the time that I have. And what I'm doing this year, this is just my personal thing. You do what's best for you. Um, not that I haven't done this before, I have a planner that I use, and I'm forcing myself this year, I'm forcing myself to write down whatever it is I want to get done for each particular week. Each week is precious to me. Now, I don't know why, but as I get older, each and every day, each and every week, and each and every month is very important to me. And so I want you to get that obsessed with it, to get uh to that point where each and every hour, if you're working, that is, that it matters and how you use that time is important. That's how people get things done. All right. So your time management is is super important, you know. And um, I would challenge you if you're writing music, if you're practicing, if you're writing a book, if you're working on, if you're an artist, if you're painting, if you're you're abstract artists, whatever you're doing, right? Have some have a time where, okay, I'm gonna dedicate this hour to this. This is all I have for this particular thing today. If you have other things to get to, if not, cool. Still put a timer though. Still have some time where have a timer in mind, put on your phone, your watch, whatever it is, so that you can have some type of forward motion to what you're doing. And I have found that this has helped me accomplish so much more. And I'm not just spending 30 minutes here and an hour there, and it just time my time was all over the place. I need to get certain things done by a certain time, especially because you know, I have a podcast, I have a blog, and I do social media. So I can't just my time can't just be everywhere. I have to have specific, I have to be very specific about my time and how much time I'm spending um on a particular thing, and getting things done because I am a married man, so I want to make sure I'm spending time with my wife. We're having time together, and I have downtime. So time management across the board is super important. Maybe somebody else will have some other other perspective, but that's how I look at it. Okay. Uh last point, treating music like a profession, not an afterthought. Listen, if this is something that you really want to do, if this is something you really want to do, then I am going to encourage you to treat it as such and like it's something that you really want to do, and something you're really going after. Okay. This cannot be something that you just do on the weekends, you know, or or you just when you're having a good day and you're feeling good, and now I want to, oh, let's go do some music. No, that's not, you're not going to get anywhere doing that. You know, you're not going to get far doing that. Don't get me wrong, everything you do is a seed, so it's spiritual law, seed time and harvest. Uh whatever you sow, you shall reap. So if you're spending time in it, something will happen. But if you only treat it as something you get to whenever you just have a thought of a thought, or you know, you're just having a great day and you feel great, or you know, you have to make time. That's just what that's just the way this thing works. You have to make time for the things that you want to do with the things you want to accomplish. Remember, I said before the very first point about motivation. Yes, there are days you're going to be motivated, and there are days you're not going to be motivated. And I would venture to say that I don't know, you know, what the ratio would be, but I don't know. Maybe most days, you may not be, you'll have days where you are motivated, but maybe most days you're not going to feel like doing certain things that you need to do. I'll give an example. Um, my wife and I we're we're doing this uh exercise plan uh from um oh goodness, what is it called? Uh Apple Plus. Is it Apple Plus? Oh Fitness Plus. Fitness Plus, and we have the Apple Watches and all that, and they have, you know, if you have the app, they have different programs and different things you can do. So it starts out with the first two weeks, 10 minutes, second two weeks, 20 minutes, and then third, the the the the uh fifth and sixth week, 30 minutes. And so we're on the 30 minute now, and we both were in there huffing and puffing today. But but it needed to get done. It needed to get done. And so we're not treating it like it's just something to get to, oh, I'll work out whatever. No, no, no. There's there's a goal here, and so there's an intention, and and and I had to get it done. We had to get it done. And so I want you to treat this thing like oh, this is something I need to need to do, something I have to get done. I need to make this happen. Become that urgent in what you're doing, become that urgent and uh uh intentional in going after this thing. And I guarantee you, you know, I can't give you any timelines. People, you know, yes, you can change your life in six months, you can change your life in a year with focus and intention and taking some time away. This is not one of the points that I have, but I'm going to stick this in there. Yes, we have the hustle mentality, you know, and grinding and all that, but I need you to understand that, you know, the Bible talks about how there's a day of rest. God did what he did for six days, and on the seventh day, he rested. Even though he didn't need to, but he was he was laying the foundation for us, giving us an example that you need to step away from the grind, step away from the work, all right, to have time for yourself, do whatever you want, I don't care what it is, as long as it's not harmful to you and to your friends and family, you know, do something that has nothing to do with the grind and the thing that you're going for. It's so important to do this. And I know in America, we, you know, I don't know, I know people are listening to this on different continents and in different countries, which I appreciate. But in America, we just love to grind, we love to work and love to just go, go, go, go, go. But I have learned that I need to step away. There's so much that I do that I need to step away from what I'm doing. And so I want to pass that on to you. But treat this thing with the intention of getting things done, making things happen. This is what you want to do, so let's get it done. All right. And listen, I have a few things that I want you to do. Um, listen, write down one clear music goal for this season. And I'll even go even smaller. Write down what goal you have for this quarter. The first three months of the year, what is it that you want to get done? And I think that's a great idea. Um, now that I'm talking about this myself, because I'm working on this album. What do I want to get done in the first three months of this year? Uh, where do I want to be when the second quarter starts? All right. Uh, the second is uh write down one thing still in your time that needs to be reduced or removed. All right. And that does not, that that should not include your wife, your husband, and your children. That it should not include that. There should be a time where, okay, yes, you're working, you're getting things done, but there should be a time where you you you are spending time with family and friends. It is great, it is uh paramount, and I think it's very, very important. All right. And I know that again, because of the grind mentality, we just want to go, go, go. You know, we just want to make things happen. Let's go. I get it. I get it. I'm with you, but take time away to make things happen. All right. I want to thank you so much, man, for checking this out. And do me a favor, family, before we go, make sure you go and check out the blog Sonic Kingship Art blog, giving even more information, sharing even more information, giving you tools that you need so that you can accomplish and make things happen for yourself this year and more specifically this month, this quarter, all right, the first half of the year, whatever it may be. All right, go and check out that blog post and the other blog post. There will be a link in the description. Um, if the link is to one particular post, there are a come out of it, there are other posts there. Go and check out the entire thing. Also, check out um my uh social media platforms or social media pages on those platforms. Uh, my name is Tony King on there as well, Tony with an I. Um, I'm having a brand new cover that that's going to be released on Friday. Um, the date is escaping me right now, might be the fifth or the sixth. Um, releasing a very new cover. It's not my song, but a cover of a song that um um that I like. I did covers last year, and I'm continuing with that um in February, and I'll be dropping one each and every month of this year. We're making things happen, family. So go and check out that. Check out uh my stuff on Facebook, on Instagram, on YouTube, on Threads, on TikTok. Um, check out everything, man, because we're we're making things happen. All right. I want to thank you so much for checking this out. I hope you're having a wonderful day. If you're not having a wonderful day, you can change that by your mindset. Thanks so much. Tony Kenya.