It’s one thing to know more about how you approach things to help shape your goals but it’s quite another to capture that info and use it! 

I have seen research reports that indicate that only 8% of people who set goals actually achieve them. Yikes! 

When you look at what helps those 8% get over the hurdle – writing it down is the prevalent shared element.  Those people are no more motivated or dedicated or special than the people who don’t write their goals down, they just used a tool to help them get along.

This might sound familiar – I’m always telling you to write it down.  I encourage you to have a practice journal so you can keep track of the day-to-day mundane parts of practice (what metronome setting? which phrase still isn’t right?) as well as the delights (f-i-n-a-l-l-y got through that tricky part successfully!) and the disappointments (ugh, I feel like I’ll never get that phrase….but when I look back I see I have only been working on it for 2 days, not the 2 millennia it feels like!).

All this documenting can start with the goals themselves.  Now, maybe you have broken your pen, or you used all the writing paper in your house to line the hamster cage, or you just don’t want to write.  Ok.  I get that – you think I’m wrong (although I have multiple students who will tell you otherwise!).  You might enjoy this suggestion anyway.

Once you’ve formulated a goal, you still want to capture it.  Preferably in an enduring way that allows you to center and focus on it – not just now when you’re setting the goal or at the end when you’ve achieved it – but more crucially, in the middle of working on it.  You know, that time when it’s so easy to lose interest or to get sidetracked (shiny object syndrome anyone?), or to begin to despair that you set a goal this is achievable, just not by you.  You can think of this as the “worried in the dead of night” phase of working toward something.

Another thing those successful goal setters do (after they write it down) is to keep their goal(s) in front of themselves so they can remember what’s important to them.  So, how might you go about capturing your goal(s) so you can keep your eye on them?  Well, if you’re like me, you’ll write lists and maybe a narrative [of course, if you’re really like me, you’ll lose the paper, or write on the back of it and then throw it away…and then you’re stuck trying to remember what you had thought was so important to do].  But if what leads to success is keeping the goals in front of ourselves, maybe a better approach is to go with something we look at.

Maybe we take it to the wall! What if you made a visual representation of your goals instead of just writing them down? 

A what?!?

Bear with me.  Not everyone is verbal or likes to write.  And sometimes doing something that feels a little uncomfortable actually changes your vision of the activity (for example, trying to write with your non-dominant hand makes you think about the act of writing differently).  And it is a lot easier to hang a visual item on the wall to look at it frequently than it is to pin a bunch of words to the wall.

So, give it a try – this year, as you capture and form your goals make a visual representation of them.  You can do this however you choose – make a collage of photos (from magazines or online), draw in your favorite medium (I’m currently shifting from my washable markers phase to crayons…but I just bought some chalk pastels, so I feel another change coming!), paint, sculpt, mixed media – whatever.  I’m really keen on a mashup that is part bullet journal, part sketch book, part junk journal.   You will probably need some words too – but those can be written, lettered, drawn, cut from magazines or newspapers (if you’ve never seen one of these, they are an ancient form of communication rarely seen in the modern world!) – again however you choose.  When you’re done you can hang this where you’ll see it – near your harp? next to your bathroom mirror? next to your tv?  Doesn’t matter as long as it’s a place you can see it, reflect, and keep your goals in mind.

And if, like me, you’re more verbal and your mind is screaming “NO!!” – try this anyway.  Expressing yourself in a different medium will give you an opportunity to think differently.

Because what’s important is that you keep your goals in mind so you can become a better harp player!

I’ll be working on mine.  Let me know if you’re really going to give this a try… and if you’d like to share, I’d be delighted to see how you have captured your goals! Just send a photo! 

Happy Goal Setting!

WOW!  Last week you had some great comments and questions!  A couple of you privately asked what the point was.  If you were wondering what the point of all that was – or if there even was a point, you’re about to find out!

I don’t know about you, but I try really hard to not make resolutions at the New Year.  If I do make a resolution, it’s usually at an equinox or solstice. Why then?  Why not?  There’s nothing about 1 January that makes it more special than any other day, although it does feel momentous and there’s great fanfare to its arrival, but any day is a good a starting point.

However, the New Year is the beginning of a year and one could argue that at the beginning is an excellent place to start something.  It provides an opportunity to focus on the action needed and to set goals.

So PROCESS? PRODUCT? So what?

Well, goals work best if they are actually aligned with what you want.  Goals work worst when they are really good….for someone else!  If you’re primarily a process person, you will be better served to have goals that align with you and are more process driven.  If, on the other hand, you’re a product person, then setting process goals will likely just result in failure and self-recrimination.

And who wants that?

Since you’ve had the opportunity to think about how Process or Product you are, now you can craft goals for yourself that build on your strengths.  By starting with your strengths, you’re much more likely to be successful.

If you’re more Process, you might define goals for the coming year that focus on the journey.  These might be longer term, stretching throughout the year (or even across years).  Because you’re process oriented, you will do fine with these goals. And you have the flexibility to have any “products” happen when they happen rather than adhering to a schedule.   And if there are no products, so what?

If you found you are more Product focused, your goals might look really different.  Products are likely to be shorter term, and each of them might be very finite.  You can schedule them and then adhere to the schedule as part of the goal.  And if you don’t reflect on how you got there, so what?

The lovely thing is that you can use either Process or Product for any goal!  If the goal is to play all of the Carolan compositions (since those seem to be all the rage just now with multiple approaches to collecting and arranging them) it’s more how you state the goal and then work it, rather than the goal itself.  For a process person, stating the goal that look like this: “I will play through all the Carolans by the end of the year”.  For the product person that might be too nebulous, so it might be stated, “I will play one Carolan tune each day for the next 261 days.”  Same goal, different approaches.  The process person would probably chafe under the product approach and the product person might get nowhere with the process statement – but stated in their own best way, they can each have a great year and achieve that goal!

By focusing on your strengths, you can also develop goals that are less “should” and more “will“.   For instance, your goal could be, “I should organize all my sheet music” (can you hear the sneer of that “should”?  That sneer is what makes me think, “I should but I won’t”).  But what if we shifted it around and removed the “should”? Then it could be stated, “Alphabetize and arrange my music library” (more product) or “Read through and bring some order to my music” (more process).

Of course, this is also the opportunity to set a goal to practice things that don’t come as naturally to you or are uncomfortable for you.  This is an opportunity to strengthen your weaker Process or Product side.  Do you see how that subtle wording shift above makes the goals more approachable?  Also notice that they’re the same goal?  Of course in this example, many of us might smush it all together and enjoy a ramble through all the music we want to get to but might not (on the line between Process and Product), but we’ll enjoy the time we spend.

No matter what your goals might be this year, putting them in the context of your strengths will certainly make them more appealing.  And more accomplishable.  And more enjoyable.  Avoiding “shoulds” will also give you the opportunity to shake off the shackles of expectations that don’t fit you.

What are your goals this year?  I’d love to hear them – share in the comments!

PS, you may have seen that sometimes I post a comment in which I reference an email rather than a previous comment.  I know that not all of you are interested in sharing every thought you ever had with everyone on the planet.  You are always welcome to send me an email sharing your thoughts.  Usually you have excellent thoughts that I might edit and share your thinking with the group but know that if you send me an email comment and I post it in the comments, I will strip it of all attribution to protect your privacy.  I really do like hearing from you so please don’t hide your light!