Dimensions of Personality: The "big five" are broad categories of personality traits.

While there is a significant body of literature supporting this five-factor model of personality, researchers don't always agree on the exact labels for each dimension. However, these five categories are usually described as follows: 1. Extraversion: This trait includes characteristics such as excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness and high amounts of emotional expressiveness.

2.

Agreeableness: Tendency to get along well with others.This personality dimension includes attributes such as trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviors like Morality, Cooperation, Modesty, Sympathy Conscientiousness: Common features of this dimension include high levels of thoughtfulness, with good impulse control and goal-directed behaviors. Those high in conscientiousness tend to be organized and mindful of details. Neuroticism: Individuals high in this trait tend to experience emotional instability, anxiety, moodiness, irritability, and sadness. Openness: This trait features characteristics such as imagination and insight, and those high in this trait also tend to have a broad range of interests.

3.

4. 5.

It is important to note that each of the five personality factors represents a range between two extremes. For example, extraversion represents a continuum between extreme extraversion and extreme introversion. In the real world, most people lie somewhere in between the two polar ends of each dimension.

Concept of success and Failure:

Success/failure is one among the most frequently used terms in business scenarios. Success/failures are mere concepts of the mind, if things workout the way we wanted them to be - we call them SUCCESS. If things does not workout how we wanted them to be - we call them FAILURES. If success/failures are concepts of the mind, then how are they influencing our mind? In most instances, Success brings great joy/happiness to your mind. Failure brings pain/sadness to your mind. Taking our thinking a little further, we would realize that in reality it is happiness towards which we are running after and not Success. If happiness is what we are looking for, then which one of these are going to give you more happiness - Is it the task of performing a act or is it the outcome of the act. For instance, say you have a tasty apple on your hand - which is going to give you more joy: a) the act of eating the apple, b) fulfillment that you have eaten the apple. For sure, it is "the act of eating the apple" which is going to give you great joy. So next time, when someone says "you failed in your expedition to climb Mount Everest". Tell them, it doesn't matter - Success/Failures are mere concepts of the mind and that you enjoyed the act of climbing Mount Everest. It is the intent, the intensity of the approach, the act which matters more than the outcome. Having such an approach in every walk of your life will bring out the best from you to accomplish a particular task. You will be more intense and sharp then ever before, you will have no fear of success/failure. While running a race, being focused on running than on outcome will help you to perform better. So don't worry about Success/Failure, keep running the path you have chosen without worrying about the outcome. You will perform better than ever before.

The assumption that success and failure can be clearly defined and quantified.

Success and failure are not just as clean-cut as people make them out to be. What is success to one person is anothers failure, and vice-versa. Just because something didnt turn out the way youd hoped or planned, doesnt make it a failure, it simply means that it hasnt gone the way youd hoped. The chances are, however, that you have gained something valuable from that negative experience. Here are some examples of things Ive immediately considered failures, but then re-considered in retrospect (i.e. how can I prevent that happening again?):

Making a blunder on stage. Seems like the end of the world at the time but really it proves to you that more practice is needed.

Poor turnout at a gig Ive been booked at. Do I need to play there again? How can I avoid playing to an empty room in future?

A band member keeps letting me down. Do I need to keep them in the band?

Whilst these things seem like failure, in actuality they are just part of the learning experience. You didnt always get things right at school, did you? (otherwise youd never have needed to go) Yet when you got things wrong there, did you feel that youd failed? Dangerous comparisons: When it comes to our music careers, the reason why small hurdles get blown out of proportion is because were all caught up in this rat-race of comparing ourselves to others who we consider to have achieved a level of success we desire. We are usually ignorant or blissfully unaware of their trials and tribulations and assume that their journey was plain sailing. This is dangerous because it can blind us from recognising our achievements and giving them the attention and merit they deserve. The saying nice guys finish last is very true here because a lot of people are too humble for their own good and play down what is ultimately something they should feel very proud of. This also applies to people who are too caught up on an unrealistic concept of success no amount of success they achieve will ever match up to the fantastical notion they have in their heads, and as such they will always feel theyve fallen far short of the mark.

The truth is, the only person in this world whose opinion matters and who can truthfully judge your success as a musician is you. Dont compare yourself to anyone else learn from others but remember that they walked their path and you are walking yours. There may be parallels between the two but they are also very unique and independent. Defining success: I think people get too hung up on everything they do in music being a definitive, end-of-line career-altering move. Its not like sitting a driving test there is no pass or fail, theres only how I did it, and for each and every person that will be unique. I get a lot of people asking me so what are you going to do if you dont make it in music?. I find this an intolerably stupid and narrow-minded question because making it is not really a quantifiable measurement. Theres a whole other blog post on that topic alone, but the concept of success in the music industry is different to every single person. Recognizing your achievements: To some extent, Ive already made it Im writing, recording and releasing my own music, Im out there playing it and I have an audience who come and see me play and buy the music. Im not making a living from it yet but thats not the only definition of making it. Success is an ever-changing and evolving entity. 10 years ago success for me was being able to play my guitar to a basic level of proficiency. Since then I have gradually increased my expectations and now its almost unimaginable that I ever considered that to be a plateau of success. I know that given another ten years, everything I consider to be successful now will seem like pittance by comparison. Even if I manage to reach what I consider at the moment to be my ultimate goal, Im sure that Ill be aiming higher beyond that. Achieving success there is not the end of the story. The crucial thing is to keep re-assessing your goals, having realistic expectations and allow yourself to celebrate your successes along the way. Defining failure: I think we should be careful about how we use this term. Failure for me suggests a very severe outcome of an event, such as the power failing on stage or something definitively going wrong like a mechanical failure on a vehicle.

I just dont think that it can be so loosely applied to the events in someones music career there is simply what actually happened and therefore what I got from that. So it didnt turn out how youd hoped, but unless youre blessed with the power to know the future, how do you know it was a categorical failure? You can only do your best to achieve a desired outcome, but truthfully there are far too many factors beyond your control conspiring to make that outcome undesirable. Without being too philosophical here, try and roll with the punches and assess each event for its individual merit. True failure: True failure would be to give up entirely in the face of adversity. Those of us who make it are those who stay the course and recognise each hurdle for what it is an opportunity to learn and move on. Yes its hard to pick yourself up after a fall, but those who do are stronger for it and are more likely to succeed. What if success is actually failure? This is an odd and unlikely concept, but what if the very moment you consider to be your most successful to date was actually your biggest failure? I realise how odd that sounds, but what if what you achieved at that event actually fell far short of what it could have been, or could be the biggest blunder of your entire career and as a result youre unable to progress any further? Its certainly worth consideration, but dont start looking at your successes and assume they could have been better Summing up I think therefore that we ought to be more careful about our use of success and failure in relation to our music careers. Everyones experience is very different and should be considered by its own individual merits, and dont be so quick to brand each event along the road as one thing or another.