The goal was clear, Toby wasn't just thinking about singing and being an ordinary singer who blended in with everyone else without standing out in any way. From a young age, he had looked up to Harry, a singer of his time who worked incredibly hard to sing, but because he didn't rise above the rest, he remained in obscurity, without any recognition or glory. That's exactly what he wanted to avoid when singing became a part of his life. To achieve his goal of becoming someone superior, he set several important objectives.
First, he wanted to climb the ranks at the various music festivals held weekly in his country to make a name for himself. That way, he would gain recognition faster than by simply writing songs. After that initial goal, he planned to win the award for best singer at the festival for several consecutive weeks. These were short-term goals. His longer-term objective was to become the best singer in his entire country, and who knows, maybe even the world. Of course, these were very ambitious goals, but he was going to give it his all to achieve them, and that gave him a powerful motivation.
And it worked perfectly. The strength he gained from having such clear goals helped him easily reach the first stages of his plan. He managed to sing at the fairs held weekly in his country. And after performing there several times and becoming known, he achieved his first major objective: becoming the best singer at the fair for several consecutive weeks. This was very gratifying for him because he saw his plans coming to fruition, and that gave him the confidence to keep moving forward.
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After the boost he received from being the best at the fair and several festivals, and building a loyal fanbase, he released his first major album, featuring all the songs he had created for the fairs and several new ones. It was a remastered compilation with added tracks. This album was truly beneficial for his career because it was a success. In the music industry, he was considered a hidden gem; people couldn't understand why he hadn't achieved fame sooner. Hearing these things and seeing the success of his album continued to give him the strength to overcome the many obstacles he encountered.
There were less successful songs and albums not as explosive as his first, but he always created a great buzz and high expectations for his new work. This told him he was on the right track; people, and especially the music industry, were noticing. He had already surpassed his role model, Harry, whom he didn't want to emulate for always being in the shadows and never becoming anyone special. Well, that was behind him now; it was time to think bigger and achieve his new goal: to be the best in the country.
This goal was more complicated than the others because to achieve it he had to surpass several other very good singers in the country. So it took him a while. More than 20 years to be exact, almost his entire career focused on this goal. During all that time he observed what worked for others and applied it to his own work. Thus, little by little, he refined his technique and improved remarkably.
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Sooner or later, at the end of those 20 years, he achieved it. He became the best and most respected singer in the entire country. It was a costly goal in terms of time invested, but the result was well worth it. He had almost accomplished everything he had set out to do; only one thing remained: to be the best singer in the world. This last goal was the most difficult of all and the most symbolic, since no one had ever achieved it. Although he had the strength to continue, and simply looking back at his past showed him that he could do it, things changed for the first time.
Toby realized something: although he had gained a lot in his career, he had also lost a great deal. By striving to surpass his self-imposed goals, he had stopped enjoying the journey; everything was always pressure. He never had the opportunity to enjoy other facets of music because he had to do what sold the most. And the most costly thing of all was the time invested. If being the best in his country took him 20 years, being the best in the world would require a whole new lifetime.
That's why he decided enough was enough; it was time to continue singing, but now with a different focus and rhythm. His biggest problem was that time was running out, and he had to choose between symbolic goals and those that truly brought him short-term happiness so he could enjoy them. And that's what he did. Now he'll concentrate more on enjoying the present and the past. And the future will be built with more goals, but making the most of each day in the short term.
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