I feel like music is killing me

I have all these goals floating around my head, some specific, some more long term and lofty. But as time wears on, I find myself completely unable to come any closer to any of them.

Lose your goals. Goals are what's creating your misery, not whether you're successful or not.

Before I clicked into this thread I guessed I'd be reading about goals. Last winter, I got really down about lack of success in various aspects of my life, including music. I had goals, lots of them. I thought once I achieved them I'd be happy. This was despite the fact that I had already achieved one or two and didn't get any lasting happiness from them. Then in February I found some a video or two on youtube which convinced me to ditch my material goals and since then I've been much happier. I'd rather be unsuccessful and happy than unsuccessful and bitter like I was.

the fact that I have nothing to show for it is slowly eroding away at my psyche.

Success is all relative anyway.

I'm feeling that I may need to take an intentional break from music, because it has recently stopped being fun.

Music hasn't stopped being fun - it's what you're telling yourself about it and believing in that's making you feel bad when you think about music (e.g. "I am a good musician," "I must be a good musician," "If people don't buy my records, then I'm not a good musician, I don't have value as a musician, I don't have value as a person," - all of these are questionable - look at Van Gogt - look at how unsuccessful he was when he was alive yet his work considered masterly now. Look at how reviled successes of yesteryear are now. Success is meaningless.)

/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Thread