Why You’re Obsessed With Fixing Your Voice (And Why It’s Keeping You Stuck)

In this episode, Sarah explores the hidden mindset that keeps many singers stuck: the constant need to “fix” themselves. She breaks down how perfectionism and chasing improvement from a place of not feeling good enough can actually block progress and disconnect you from your voice. The episode reframes vocal growth as a process of balance, awareness, and relationship — not endless fixing. If you’ve been working hard but still feel stuck, this episode will challenge how you approach your voice and your artistry.

If you’re stuck between sounding too soft or feeling like you’re yelling every time you try to sing with power — that’s not a talent issue, it’s a coordination issue. 

And it’s exactly what Pillars is designed to address.

 Pillars teaches you how to build a balanced, efficient voice so you’re not overblowing, pushing, or guessing your way through songs anymore.

 Right now, you can take $100 off the full Pillars series using code PILLARS100 at checkout — but this offer expires April 17, 2026.

If you’re ready to stop forcing and actually understand your voice, Pillars is your next step

→Click HERE for Pillars 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

If you're tired of not making progress and you're ready to be the artist you know you're meant to be, you're in the right place. You're listening to the Singer's Past podcast. The Path or Performing Artist Training Hub will cover everything, including the singing tips that actually work, advice from top industry professionals, and life-changing mindset tests, out with the starving artist and in with the thriving artist. I'm your host, Sarah Bishop, professional singer, actor, educator, and entrepreneur. I'm not afraid to speak the truth and stop the gatekeeping of quality information so you can actually become the artist you dream of being. So let's get on the path, shall we? Even though we're all on our own journeys, it always helps to have a guide. Okay, hello, hello. Welcome back to the Singer's Path Podcast. It is me, your host, Sarah Bishop, and I am joining you here today. I just recorded a previous episode talking about being shouty and yelling, and now we are on a roll, and we're gonna kind of dip a little bit into the mental game that might be kind of screwing up your singing, putting you in a weird head space, um, and really actually kind of blocking you from moving forward in the way you want to grow in your voice. I am also simultaneously on TikTok live. So if you hear me, shout out to people like hi Sissa, it's really nice to see you. I have some TikTok friends that are here joining on the live call, which I love. I love to see joining. Um, again, as we're starting this episode, if you find that this is helpful and you're on TikTok live and you like this, reminder if you go to the SingersPath Podcast on Apple Podcasts or you leave us a review on Spotify, I particularly like a written review on the Singers Path Podcast, on Apple Podcasts specifically, because that helps to get this out to more people. If you leave us a five-star written review, you take a screenshot of that and you email it to singerspath at gmail.com, I will enter you to win a free lesson with me that I usually pull quarterly. So that's a way that I love to get back to people when you're engaging, when you're liking the podcast, when you are, you know, leaving us a review and taking the time to do that. So love to see that. Really appreciate you just starting off with that right off the bat. The other thing I will let you know really quickly before we begin the rest of this episode is that we are running a sale that by the time this podcast episode gets released, it is probably the very last day on April 17th, 2026. You can actually get$100 off Pillars by using code PILLIRS100 at checkout. And this is a vocal conditioning course. If you don't know anything about pillars, again, it will be linked in the show notes for you to learn more about it. But this is for people who have taken discover or they just are telling themselves they they don't know why their singing is so hard, they can't figure out how to mix, they know that they need to find vocal balance, they know they need to take better care of their voice, they know they need to feel like they have more control over the voice, but they don't know how to get there. And so pillars conditions it in with vocal habit specific or vocal tendency specific lessons. So um, Discover, which is part of the Pillars series, actually teaches you how to understand what is keeping singing hard for you, right? It helps you identify and understand what about your singing is keeping you in balance. What is the problem that is causing you to not be able to get where you want to go? And then pillars actually gives you the lesson plans to course correct and rebalance the habit that's causing you to not be in alignment. So Discover teaches you to find the problem, quote unquote, the problem or the thing that is stopping you from being balanced. And pillars creates a solution to that discomfort by creating the appropriate exercises that are specific to you, right? And what your voice is particularly doing. Okay. And right now, again, that you can get$100 off by using code PILLERS100 at checkout only until April 17th, 2026. If you're hearing this late, sorry about it. That's why you need to get on the email list and keep listening to the podcast in real time because uh this is where I like to announce where I'm doing specials and sales and events and things like that. Okay. So today's episode is going to be about actually the mentality around singing and what's kind of keeping you stuck. And it's interesting because I know pillars and discover talk about finding a solution to quote unquote like problems you have with your voice. And paradoxically, in this episode, we're gonna talk about the fact that we may need to re-examine our relationship with fixing ourselves, constantly trying to fix ourselves. Okay, and again, I know I just plugged like, hey, listen, I know if you're having a problem, here's a solution. And it genuinely works, and it's a wonderful product. And at the end of the day, I need you to maybe be open to the possibility that you're never gonna be done learning and uncovering more about your voice. That actually you to the core and to the heart of who you are are not actually flawed. Okay. There's nothing like wrong with you, okay. So many of you are so hungry for knowledge and so hungry for education, and I get it because I'm the same way. But I want you to be honest with yourself for a second and just notice if you are chasing something because you feel like at the core of it, no matter what you do, you're you're you're running away from the fact that deep down somewhere you feel like your voice isn't actually that good. Or that you have to do everything in your control to like keep people from finding out that maybe, maybe you're not that talented after all. Or, you know, at the end of the day, you know, you you are the harshest critic of yourself and you can always find something to fix. And it's the perfectionism element of it that you'll never stop learning and that you have to always fix something. Now, while that's admirable to a certain degree, that we always want to have ambition and passion in how we're studying a craft. If it's rooted in a feeling that there's inherently something flawed about you, that no matter what you do, you're always chasing something that's outside of you. You are actually subconsciously and inadvertently pushing away not only your joy around singing, but your ability to be at peace and be confident in your singing, right? It's weird because it's this weird paradox thing, right? Well, Sarah, of course, I feel like there's a problem with my voice that I want to fix. Okay, but is your voice ever fixed? Like, what does it mean if your voice is fixed? Right. If you have a if you have a specific pain point with your voice that's causing you grief that you feel like is holding you back from your artistry, okay, right? Like pillars addresses imbalances in the voice, right? Discover shows you how to pinpoint what that is, and again, pillars drills it in, right? It's it's actively helping you work towards something. And yeah, it might be quote unquote fixing something that's causing you hardship. However, how the voice works and how life works is the minute that you address one thing, something else is gonna happen. Right? As soon as you strengthen one area, another area is gonna show itself to you. And I guess my point here is that it's a never-ending process. That's part of the reason why pillars, you own it forever and you're gonna keep using it. And why I keep talking about balance versus like really fixing. Fixing implies that there's something wrong. Balance implies that it's a continuous dance, a continuous agreement with self, that you're gonna try to understand yourself at a more deep level, have more compassion and love for yourself to meet yourself with whatever needs need to be met. Not, well, there's always something wrong with me and I always have to fix it because I'm chasing something that I don't even know what it is, but I'm I'm chasing this empty feeling that I just never feel good enough. And if I just like strive harder and practice doing do more, more, more, more, more, that somehow that feeling of never feeling good enough will go away. Okay. Sorry, I'm coming really strong. We are not even 10 minutes into this episode, and I'm like, okay, but and and I can speak to this so clearly because I get it. And like maybe both are true. Maybe both are true. Maybe you just have a desire to the core of your being to understand, right? And you you're passionate about learning, you're passionate about understanding more about yourself. But when it comes from a space of I have to understand because I have to fix what's wrong with me, that is a recipe for a spiral out and to feel to never feel like you're actually achieving something. You're trying to fill a hole versus actually clear-headedly be pursuing a craft or a skill. Okay. And I see this really trip people up because of this innate desire to fix something because they think they're flawed. What happens is that there's also things that come along with that, usually desperation and some kind of time limit and expectations and all of these things that can actually blur the experience of addressing the discomfort that they have in the first place. So, for example, when I like used to get triggered as fuck, like when someone would be like, Can you just mix it? Like I literally missed out on a Broadway show because someone was like, Can you mix it? And I literally fucking couldn't. Okay. And I knew that that was a problem, but you know, I was telling myself, maybe I just didn't need it. Maybe I just wasn't that kind of singer, but I knew there was something up with my voice because there was always this voice in my head that was like, I don't know if you're doing this all the way right. But underneath, it was always about I have to fix my voice so that I finally feel like I'm good enough to other people. I need to fix my voice so I finally feel like my voice is actually marketable in the way that I need it to be. I need to fix my voice so that I get approval from other people to like finally get the opportunities that I have on my heart. But if I don't fix my voice, right, and I'm not chasing something that I I'm not accepting about myself, right? Maybe that means that I'm just like never good enough to begin with. Maybe that means that, you know, if if I just allow and accept where I'm at and slow the fuck down and get more familiar with the process of just getting to know myself through the development of voice, well, what does that do? Well, that creates too much space and silence, but I have to sit with the fact of maybe my voice isn't capable of what I think I need it to do. What if I'm not as talented as I think I am? What if this effort to chase and fix and become and work, work, work, work, work is actually overcompensating for the fact of the feeling that I never really truly believe that I'm enough to begin with. So I'm chasing some holy grail to escape feeling the feelings of acceptance of what I'm actually capable of. Does that make sense? And again, paradox, paradox. I'm gonna say this again because both can be true. I can be striving to learn something from a place of just being passionate about learning something and wanting to get better and again, deepening relationship with self and the understanding of what I need to continue developing my voice. And I can feel enough and at peace with where I'm at and surrender to the process. Both paradoxically need to be present. And if both aren't present and I'm chasing something to feel a certain way, to finally feel enough, that also paradoxically causes me not to be in the headspace and surrendered enough to actually make the subtle adjustments to land somewhere in the middle, to find it, so to speak, to find the more aligned way or to find these different colors because I'm so fixated on the agenda of fix, fix, fix, do, do, do, do, do that I am not open to receiving the nuance and the subtleties and the gentleness that's required. Okay. So that was a whole lot of like mind stuff, but it's true. It's true. If you are so obsessed with fixing yourself, it probably comes down to the fact that you deep down just don't think that no matter what you do is gonna be good enough. And you're trying to run away from that. And so the invitation here, I'm not gonna tell you not to stuff continue studying your voice, but I'm gonna tell I'm gonna ask you to sit with the discomfort of what, why do we feel we're trying to fix and change ourselves all the time? Okay. Where is that coming from? I'd want you to take some breaths with that and just be curious. Like, can I sit in this discomfort of this knowing and these feelings and this sensation in my body? Because at the end of the day, it is just sensation, right? It's just feelings that are going to rise and change and move through us if we give them the space to do that. Okay. And if you ever need help with learning to do that, this is why I created the inner circle membership. That goes more into the mental and emotional side of being an artist. Um, it's wonderful. It's a wonderful community of artists holding each other through this, these feelings and these uncoverings that are attached to their artistry, right? So we do that a lot more in depth over there. But if you can be with yourself in the discomfort of just this not enough feeling or feeling like you are chasing something that is outside of you, and you just allow yourself to breathe with it and have compassion with yourself, that is gonna move wonders. The second thing I would ask you to do is reframe. So instead of thinking that you have to fix something in order to get to a specific outcome, I would say, okay, is it possible to acknowledge that, hey, we're not vocally where we want to be? Can we be open to receiving our next best step? Can we be open to looking at it as more of an ongoing continuous adventure versus some destination we're trying to desperately get to? Can we look at studying our voice and understanding more nuances as actually a way to return to ourself and look at studying the voice as a mirror into how we actually view things in our internal world? Can we have compassion with being where we are now? And then as we're holding space for ourselves and giving ourselves empathy and compassion, can we then kind of from a more neutralized space, from a more steady headspace, then take the next adjustment and then the next adjustment? Because the truth is, if you're not able to vocally do something that you want to do, you can learn to do it. But two things are probably going on that is stopping you from doing that. A, you don't have enough self-awareness, or you haven't met the right person or the right uh combination of tools and things that are specific to you to functionally get you there. And B, you're probably so obsessed with getting there that you're actually subconsciously blocking yourself from receiving said information or hitting the mark because you're so desperate to do it in on a certain timeline. Okay. So if you're listening to this and you're like, holy shit, okay, again, a couple things you can do. Maybe this is a sign that I'm someone that you want to listen to that helps you kind of realize this kind of stuff. I hope that's true. That's why I'm saying it. So if that's the case, again, make sure to continue listening to the podcast because we talk about this a lot. If you want deeper support on this like emotional side of things and these uncovering of stories around your artistry, that's where the inner circle is. Okay, that's that's where maybe you belong in this situation to untangle and work through this so you can return to the joy of your art and the surrender to the process and the and the pleasure of pursuing something that you love. Okay, that's where you would go. And then if you're really in a state where you're like, no, like I hear you, and like I still functionally want to be able to do this thing. And like I'm ready to identify with more self-love for myself, but also more objectively. I want to understand and hear what is stopping my voice from doing the thing I want to do functionally, objectively. Okay. Then that's where you would go to get the pillars series. Again, use the code PILIRS100, watch discover that teaches you what's happening, what's causing the issue, and then pillars trains it in so that it's it's a continuous dance with navigating the vocal hiccups that you have in a more sustainable way so that it becomes faster to find balance. Because again, it's more about identifying what's out of alignment, what's off balance, knowing what specific things for your voice bring you to balance, and then drilling that until those drills no longer serve the purpose of what you're doing. And then you would switch and you would reassess. Strengthening the voice again is more of creating relationship with different areas of your voice, with your own habits, with your own tendencies of your personality. It's creating relationship with different shapes and air pressure and vocal styles, and it's learning to like alchemize and use subtle differences in the voice to keep it balanced on the beam that you're trying to walk. But if you don't know what's causing you to fall off balance, you keep falling off the beam and you don't know why. And I could look at you and say, well, it's because your like hips are cocked to the side, or it's because your right heel keeps drooping over the edge and you're not realizing it, right? Let's say you're a dancer, right? And you keep falling out of your pirouette, and you just keep blindly trying pirouettes without any direction. And you just keep falling and falling and falling and falling, and you're not receiving any direction as to like how to actually improve it. And then suddenly one day your teacher's like, yeah, your spots all jacked up, or your butt's sticking out, or like your arms, you don't have any resistance in your arms. No wonder you're falling out of alignment, no wonder you're falling out of your pirouette. Right? That's what Discover and Pillars do. They go, Yeah, uh, here's why it's not working. And Pillars is like, cool, let's uh make it, let's make it happen then. Let's make it happen over and over again. And again, deep in the relationship. And all of this to say, uh, as we're wrapping up this episode here, while you're on your vocal journey, and because I care about you and love you, and genuinely to the best of my ability, want to serve you as deeply as I can. You cannot study the voice at an intimate level and at the level that you you're saying you want to sing at without being confronted by these more internal narratives. For example, you're chasing something outside of yourself to fix, fix, fix, do, do, do, because you think there's something inherently wrong with you. Yes, you could very well have something vocally that's knocking you out of alignment. Yes. But but as soon as you address that, are you just gonna latch on to something else that's wrong with your voice? Or are you going to start to give yourself a little bit more compassion and accept where you are and realize that it is a continuous effort. It's not something that is fixed and completed and done. It is just a deepening of relationship and you just get better problems. It's like having money, right? Like when you have money, your problems don't go away. You just have better problems, right? When you can learn how to balance your voice, you never struggle. It's not like you never struggle to sing anything. You just, you just sing harder things. You sing um different styles with with more expertise. You uh can balance faster. But that's that does that mean your voice is never imbalanced? No. It just means you get there faster. It means you have a better relationship with self that you can self-adjust. And it means that you are not as fixated on all the flaws that you have, but you're more tuned into the nuance and how to actually control the artistry that you want. It's more focused on expression than what's wrong with the functionality of it. Okay. Well, that was crazy. All kinds of words were spat in this episode. Again, reminder to leave us that five star written review. I really, really appreciate it. Send us that screenshot so you can be entered to win a free lesson. I really hope you enjoyed this episode. Again, check out that sale, pillars 100 at checkout, before April 17th, 2026, to get$100 off. Um, if You want balance, get into pillars. And I hope you give yourself a big hug today and just like do something you like, maybe sing a song because you like it. And um yeah, just go easy on yourself. Are you being too hard? Are you nitpicking? Because I don't want to be giving you all this information just for you to turn it in on yourself and stab yourself with it, okay? Right? Self-awareness as a singer can be a double-edged sword. This isn't about finding all of the flaws and everything that's wrong with you. It's about leading you deeper into artistry and control over your instrument. Okay. And with that, I will leave you with the rest of your day. I hope you have a wonderful one and I will talk to you next time. Okay, bye-bye. Until next time, I'm your host, Sarah Bishop, signing off from the Singer's Path Podcast. Thanks for listening.