Have you fallen into the trap?
When January 1 rolls around, do you sit there and say “This year I’m going to do it. This time it’s going to take. This time I really mean it. This time…….”
I have to be honest. I’m a convert. I’m one of those people who thought goals were a nice idea, but I was too busy DOING things to set some arbitrary goals to get someone off my back who wanted me to set goals.
I grew up in music. It was my life. I studied the violin privately and excelled. I play the drums as a hobby, but play well enough. Piano, sure. Guitar, a little. Bass – love it! Singing unconsciously all day. Camps, workshops, community groups, bands, orchestras, church groups. It’s what I did. Who I was.
It dawned on me a few months ago that goal setting was actually engrained in me as a matter of course, and I didn’t even know it. Instead of having a list of goals I made, I had weekly assignments made by my music teachers that I had to master during the hours and hours of practice everyday.
Now, if that sounds like I turned my goal setting over to someone else, you’d be right. But no more so than an athlete who wants to play professionally turns his or her goal setting over to their coach. The larger goal is still out there. You just have a personal mentor cutting it up into bite-size pieces for you, and guiding you along the way.
These weekly incremental goals in music were my stepping stones to becoming a pretty good violinist. I was no Isaac Stern or Itzak Perlman, but I could play. And every week, as I eventually mastered my assignments, I got closer and closer to that musical goal of being able to play anything I wanted, and anything that was put in front of me. For musicians that is nirvana. You come to a point where you realize all the hard work you’ve put in is paying off. And it feels WONDERFUL!!!!
In fact, the self-confidence that comes from becoming proficient in something can’t be described. You get a spring in your step that is the reward of hard-earned skill. Folks who would feign to speak your language are immediately revealed. You live life from a position of credibility. You’ve walked the walk. Now you can talk the talk.
So how did I transform into a goal-setter?
Well, let me explain. Next time.
