We’re a little past Midsummer and not quite to the middle of summer and it’s past the midpoint of the year, so here we are, Summertime Middle – or

stuck in the middle (with you)

Ok, bad song lyric semi-quotes aside, while it’s not strictly the midpoint of the year, we’re clearly in the middle of – everything and you are here.

Summer workshops have been held and continue to be going.

The winter holidays are far in the rearview and sneaking up in front of us.

School’s not in, but we’re still remembering the good of last term while beginning to anticipate the coming return.

Hallmark is showing Christmas movies (oh, wait, that doesn’t tell us anything about the season, really).

And those who love it are starting to show the early signs of a candy corn craving!

So, it’s clearly time to do another important midyear thing – check in on our goals.  I have scavenged some useful questions we might consider at this point in time.  Of course, this assumes that we all have some goals for this year – whether they’re formally written (or over the top with a project plan) or informally noted in memory (or dreamt up like a wish).  Let’s go through the questions  – I am, of course, going to ask you to share with me what you come up with, but really this is an exercise left for the reader – what’s important is that you know where you are, where you meant to be, and if you’re getting there – although I have an abiding (and prurient) interest!

Here we go:

• Wha’cha doin’? (definitely ask in a sing-song-y way!)  What have you been working on? Stuff you learned at a workshop this summer? Stuff you learned before the summer but needs polishing? Dusting your harp?
• Done anything exciting lately? – what’s making you look forward to sitting to your harp?
• What’s taking up most of your time lately? – what’s taking longer than you thought? Or are you dreading? Or keeping you away from your harp?
• What’s your biggest challenge right now? – what’s a bigger bugbear than you thought? Getting up to speed? Committing to memory? Learning anything new? Sitting down to your harp?
• What’s your day look like? – is there time for practicing and playing? Are you getting sunscreen on your soundboard? Are you looking longingly at the pool from your bench?
• What are three interesting ideas you’ve had lately? (ok, I didn’t change this question at all – I like it just as it is!)
• What are you doing to make yourself just a little bit uncomfortable just now? No, really – if you’re not a tiny bit discomforted, are you growing?
  
• Did the goals you set earlier still make sense? If so, what’s next to keep going?  And if not, what would be a better goal?
• What are you going to do next? If you’re proceeding apace on your goals, what’s the next step?  If you’re revising your goals, what’s the next step?  If you didn’t set any goals, what’s the next step?

If you’re pillorying yourself for not achieving your goals to do, stop it.  Rather, take a moment to review your old goals and identify what’s not right about them.  Because in this case, it’s not you, it’s the goal – either it wasn’t a good fit, it was too much of a stretch, it was a “should”, you just changed course, or something that made the goal not fit.  No matter, this is a great time to rewrite your goals.  Recraft the outcome, the path, the underlying rationale – whatever is needed to assure that you’re moving to your real goal, not an old/ill-fitting/unfortunately worded endpoint that isn’t serving you. 

If instead, you’re clapping yourself on the back in triumph, still take a moment to review your goals and assure yourself that you’re on the best path to the finish (for those goals), that the goal (even if you are moving deftly forward) is still the right one for you, and to identify that you still want to go where you’re headed.  Also, if you’re blown through your goals, you can take a moment to add to them!

As promised, a nosy question – how are you coming with your goals?  If you’re doing well against them, let me know!  And if you’re not, please share what was wrong with the goal and where you’re headed.  I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

So – did you make a vision/mood (visi-mood?) board?  What do you see?

This is meant to be an exercise that allows you to explore your thinking on what you’d like to accomplish (translation – your goals) for the year.  I hope you did make a board.  It’s an interesting way to get started on moving forward to where you think you’d like to be.  It’s certainly not writing up a load of resolutions or wishes.  If nothing else, it’s a compelling way to go about thinking about what activities you’d like to contemplate for the coming time. 

I did one.  I liked that it really required thinking.  It meant not only conceiving of what to do and focus on, but also then find a graphic way to represent it – yikes! 

Going graphic meant that I really had to examine all the things I was thinking about and generate ways to represent that.  Here’s what I came up with.

How about yours?

Of course, mine doesn’t mean anything to you – it’s my board!  But it does incorporate all my big goals for the year for my music.  More importantly, it helped me figure out which were actual goals (things that I can actually accomplish with a defined finish line and more than just a little detail on the process for getting there) and which were just wishes (of course I’d like to do all kinds of big and exciting stuff …but a lot of those things are just colossal stretch – and more a hankering than a goal). 

Making a board also really shone light on the “shoulds” that were crowding in.  You know the sort of thing – I should do x and if I really wanted to move forward, I should do y (where x and y are things that maybe a lot of other people are doing but that I just don’t value or am just not interested in doing).  The problem with shoulds is that they weigh a lot but don’t actually help you move.  Being able to identify those shoulds let’s you set them aside and focus on the goals you want to meet rather than to fixate on things of no import.

So, did you make a visi-mood board?  Did it help you define your goals for this year?  Did you learn anything?  Do you feel ready to codify your goals for the year?  Let me know in the comments!

Happy New Year!  It’s that time of year when it seems like everyone is setting goals and resolutions – our vision of the new year.  This year, we just don’t know.  There is still loads of uncertainty going into 2022, but we go on anyway.

Of course, the reality is that at this point of any year we have no idea what’s coming!  Our vision is limited.  It’s only in the last couple of years that we’ve been made very aware that we don’t know what’s coming, certainly in a way we haven’t been in the past.  So really, this year is beginning like every other year we’ve seen the start of.  It just seems more unavoidable this year.  Maybe it’s unavoidable, but it’s also status quo.

Now that we’ve established that this year is just like every year, we can get moving setting some goals.  Even though this year is like others before, we do feel more uncertain and actively setting some goals and writing them down may be more important this year than any other year.  After all, even though it’s the same as every other year, it still feels different.  And we could all use a little bit of support to make it through the unknown. 

But let’s not be hasty.  While we know that setting some goals will help us to keep focused throughout the year, we also know that most people don’t even get through January before those goals have been forgotten or overcome by events.  So, we can get to our goals but let’s get there smartly. 

Let’s start moving forward by looking back.  Start by asking yourself about the good that has come from our previous year.  Actively recognize your previous successes – all of them!  Might as well start on a positive note.

Now, for those goals.  You might have heard the oft reported  study that people who write down their goals are significantly more likely to achieve them (like so much internet data, the “Harvard study” that reports only 3% of people actually achieve their goals is apparently an urban myth, but actual research has also shown this!).  Writing goals down can be broadly defined – the point is to develop the goal and get it out of your head so you can refer to it (rather than either forgetting about it or allowing it to “morph” from a goal to just an idea you had).

Let’s set ourselves up for success.  Rather than just throwing some goals on paper and then forgetting about them (whether they’re written or not), how about starting with an exercise to really help focus and define good, achievable, success-oriented goals.  Let’s bastardize the Vision Board (which captures your view of what you’d like to manifest) and the Mood Board (which is really a visual planner).  You don’t have to buy into the hype of either of these tools to use them – and smushing them together into a single entity is just more useful.  Because really all these do is help you to see:

• a representation of where you’d like to go (these might become your goals)
• how you might go about getting from here to there (these might become your process)
• and the outcomes along the way (these might become products or outputs along the way). 

The important thing is to capture your thinking and then to look at it critically, make sure you have captured your thinking accurately, made changes as needed and capturing those too. 

Of course, you can use any medium – you can make a visual representation as a collage, drawing, painting, make paper dolls – whatever.  But don’t be focused on how you get it out – you could also write it out.  Use what works for you – write a puppet show, compose a song, choreograph a dance!  It really doesn’t matter as long as it helps you refine what you think you’d like your goals to be. 

This week, take some time to think about what you’d like to do this year (don’t be too focused on when you start  or how long you will be working on it.  After all the “new year” is just a calendar convention, January is when we’ve come to consensus on when the year begins).  Give yourself some time and space to do this – have a cup of tea and a slice of quiet and think about it.  When you think you have an idea, start building your board (in whatever format you choose).  Be free.  Be creative.  Be flexible.  Get it captured in your format.  Don’t just think about it – we’re going to move on from here, so you need a place to start.  Remember, you’re thinking and capturing – not committing!  And if you’re willing, share it with us – let me know in the comments. 

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!