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New Year, Now What?

The “New Year” has officially begun, so now what do you do?  Every year, around January 1st, the word “resolution” begins to escape the lips of our friends, our coworkers, and even ourselves.  As I have gotten older, I have become less and less interested in making yet another resolution I’m not going to keep. But this year is different, this year I really want to make and keep my resolution. As a music teacher, music student, and music promoter I find most of my resolutions revolve around music.  But what is a good resolution?  I have created this list of 5 things to consider when making ANY resolution.

    1.  Make the goal: it’s okay to get help when making your goals. Use a goal making tool such as the S.M.A.R.T method. “The November 1981 issue of Management Review contained a paper by George T. Doran called ‘There is a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives’. It discussed the importance of objectives and the difficulty of setting them” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria).  SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.  There are different variations to this acronym but this version is most applicable to individuals as opposed to management.  

As long as you make your goals with this in mind, the chances you will be           successful will be increased.  If you have tried using SMART goals before and they haven’t worked, you may want to try something else.  

    2.  Setting the goal: You are probably wondering how “Making the goal” and “setting the goal” are not the same thing, as they are often used interchangeably.  So allow me to explain.  When we make a goal, it resides on an ethereal plane of existence.  It won’t actually get accomplished yet.  I think this is a key reason that goals and resolutions fail.  You may even “do” what you set out to do for a little while, but the goal hasn’t been “set” yet so we fall short.  When we “set” our goals, we are making them a part of us.  It’s more than just “I want to accomplish *blank*”.  When your goal is truly set you will say “I am *blank*”.  Make your goal something that can be easily set and be a part of you.  Make your goal something that can be easily integrated into your daily life.  Sometimes, we have to take smaller steps than we would like to accomplish this, but in the long run we will be happier because we accomplished what we set out to do.  Now, this doesn’t mean that the goal or resolution shouldn’t push you, but be realistic in how much your life can truly handle.  To make a goal that you will get up at 5:30 in the morning every day to work out when your typical lifestyle is to sleep until 8 and rush out the door to work or class is unrealistic.  This is a goal that is too hard to “set”.  Is it impossible?  No!  But it is more likely to not stick for the whole year.  So, as they do in business, “lean” down your goal.  You can even set points that you will increase your goal so it’s not all at once.  For example, instead of planning to get up at 5:30 am, plan to get up at 7:00 am and do a set routine.  And if every day is a concern, plan on three times a week.  This is actually the minimum suggestion per week for working out anyway.  Then plan on a certain weight or day milestone that some part of the routine will increase.

    3.  Write out the plan: As you may already know, when your teacher or employer writes out your itinerary, it is much easier to follow.  This helps insure that you will get done what you are asked to do. Yet most of us forget about this when we have things WE want to get done.  Sure, we have to do lists and such, but what we want to do for the whole year seems too far away to worry about right now.  Well, if you are serious about being a better person and improving your lifestyle, writing down your “plan for success” will definitely increase the chances you will be successful.  Seems like a no brainer, right?  But it is possibly one of the hardest things you will do the first few times.  But don’t give up.  You have already made your goal and it is now a part of you.  All you need to do now is do.

    4.  Accountability: Why do we take music lessons from a teacher?  Why do we only work out when we go to the gym, and sometimes only with a personal trainer?  Because we need accountability.  You have to be accountable to someone, even if it is yourself.  So now we have our goal and our written out plan.  Now it’s time to make ourselves accountable to others.  Who in your life would support your goal for change?  Tell them your plan.  Work together with them.  They can share in your successes and kick your butt when you start to slack.  If you don’t have anyone currently who you feel would support you, you still need to be accountable to yourself.  Look yourself in the mirror every day and ask ���Am I giving this my all?”.  Make sure you follow your “Plan for success”.  When the struggles start, take comfort in knowing you knew what you were capable of when writing out that plan.  If you do this, you will definitely be successful.

    5.  Measure and celebrate: Making your goal measurable is a very important part of any goal or resolution.  How can you tell if you are being successful if you can’t see what you have accomplished?  You might be able to, but it’s very difficult.  Businesses track everything, this isn’t just so they can see it all, but so they can tell in what ways they are being successful and where they need to improve.  Set a realistic way to measure your success.  A way to measure your improvement. With weight it’s pretty obvious that you can weigh in once a week.  But don’t just weigh, write down your weight on a graph so you can watch it coming down.  What kind of measure can you do for a musical goal?  Perhaps you struggle with practice time.  Make a chart to track how often you practice.  That way, you can see the chart fill with all the successful practices you have completed.  By the end of the year you will be completely surprised just how much you have done.  If you want more ideas of ways to measure your success, please let me know.  Once you have done all this work to be successful, don’t forget to celebrate.  So often we don’t give ourselves permission to celebrate.  Maybe we didn’t reach our goal, or we did but know we still have a long way to go.  So what?! You made improvement and that is worth celebrating!  You have to have something to look forward to in the end, after all.  Otherwise our goals and resolutions will still feel empty.

        I wish you the best of luck this year!  Don’t forget that you are not alone in struggling with making, setting, and keeping goals.  You are one in millions, trying everyday to do better.  Just try every day to be a little better, and keep pushing that ball a few inches.  If you do, you will look back one day and be completely in awe at how far you have come.  There is always hope, there is always help.  Happy New Year!  I will see you at the top!

By:

Garrett Ashby (Owner of Ashby Music Hall)