The days are short, the nights are long, the solstice in nearly upon us, and the weather is tailor made for reflection.  Take a moment and look at your past Harp year.  Did you meet your goals?  Did you do well?  Are you happy with your progress?

If no, why?  Did you set overly ambitious goals that didn’t take into account the rest of your life?  Did you set unrealistic goals like moving from your first lesson to performing Ceremony of the Carols within the year?  Did you not plan for the work your goals required (including enough practice time)? Did you have too many competing goals?  Were your goals vague such that you could not actually determine if you made any progress?  Or did you not set any goals, preferring to see what happened naturally?

Remember that the point of goals is to guide you, to help you see that you have made progress, and to remind you over time, not to generate yet another way to beat yourself up! 

As the new year looms, we will, of course review goal setting. Whether you met goals or not, the year is nearly past and we can look forward to next year.  Many things will change and many will be different, but your harp will be there with you – take the time to be there too!