Rick Rubin urges his artists not to think about what’s currently on the airwaves. “If you listen to the greatest music ever made, that would be a better way,” he says, “to find your own voice to matter today than listening to what’s on the radio and thinking: ‘I want to compete with this.’ It’s stepping back and looking at a bigger picture than what’s going on at the moment.”
Finding your own voice is a funny thing: it’s to look inward and really listen to the small voices within you. What are the things that strike you? If you have a blank sheet of paper, what would you write? This contrasts with competing with someone else, where you are concerned about what others are doing. You mimic them on the one hand while try to beat them in their arena. The latter is often more straightforward because it’s clear what others are doing, while doing the mental work of discovering the unique work you should be doing in your own unique way is often more challenging–because when you choose to do so, you’re no longer following an established playbook. There will be no clear roadmap to follow.