November’s here and with it means a new list of goals! 

My October goals list was a lengthy one. I made a lot of progress on many of them, but for November, I wanted to reduce the load a little bit. I’m doing this by keeping my goals to 12 (rather than 26 like last month!) and reducing some numbers here and there.

There’s no point in having goals if they just merely become tasks you check off. Thankfully, I don’t feel that way about any of my goals, including the ones that have a numbers component to them. Still, I want to ensure that none of them become obligations. I want to approach all of my goals with determination rather than dread.

Here they are!

November Goals

1. Vote. (Joke’s on you; I already did this. Please go vote.)
2. Create my November budget.
3. Track my spending in November.
4. Continue tracking my meals. // I hit a very important milestone on November 2nd, and I’m excited to continue my journey.
5. Read two (2) books. // Hopefully I will read more than this, but there’s no excuse not to read at least two, I think.
6. Make two (2) new recipes. // During my planning time (see below), I’m going to pick out what I’ll make this month.
7. Watch at least one (1) opera.
8. Create at least four (4) new products for my TpT store.
9. Post to the blog at least once a week.
10. Schedule the time to do each of these tasks in my planner/weekly to-do. // I learned last month that if I don’t block out the time to do something, it doesn’t get done. At the end of October, I wrote out my weekly schedule and I am so much more aware now of the places where I can fit in extra activities or practicing, etc. Now to put those little blocks into action!
11. Sit down each week and schedule my practicing/make a practice plan. // I have been experimenting with planning my practicing in advance and I really love it.
12. Have the best Thanksgiving ever with my mom. // This may be the most important goal on the list.

What about you? What are your goals for November?

Greetings, loved ones. Let’s take a journey through October and check in with how I’ve been doing on my October goals.

Let’s take them each, one by one, and see how I did.

1. Map out my week and time-block my days. // I will call this one HALF done, as of 10/28. I mapped out what a “normal” (is there really any such thing for a musician) week is for me, including all the stationary obligations, like my teaching schedule and my church gig. It was pretty cool to have a visual representation of what my week looked like—it really helped me see big chunks of time in my day. The next step is to divide those big chunks up into time blocks for all the things I want to get done.
   
2. Create a budget. // I did NOT do this for October. I WILL do this for November.
3. Track my spending. // I am also going to call this one 50% complete, as I did a very good job of tracking my spending with my flex money (the money unreserved/left over after I pay expenses). Going to give it even more of a go in November.
4. Clean out my iPhone photos. // I haven’t entirely decided what “clean out” means? That seems vague to me now, in retrospect. I DID manage to delete a lot of memes and clutter hanging out on my phone, but I don’t think I did a purge like I probably meant when I wrote this goal down.
5. Organize my Evernote. // YES. I did this. I am also making a concerted effort to go through and each time I use Evernote, make sure I’m organizing things properly.
6. Clean out my Pocket. // HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA NO I JUST ADDED MORE STUFF TO IT. See y’all on Hoarders: Digital Clutter.
7. Celebrate fall & Halloween in the studio. // Oh boy, yes! I did this! I created a little incentive box for my students to pick from when they accomplish their practice goals each week in October. Some kids don’t care about stuff like this, but other kids LOVE IT.
8. Decorate my apartment for Halloween. // TBH this one was done at the time I wrote the October goals post soOoooOooOOooOo, there you go.
9. Carve a pumpkin. // Surprisingly, I have not done this? I’m kind of horrified by the fact that I haven’t. There are TWO pumpkins chilling in my apartment and yet … neither are carved. I’m not sure I’ll get this done by Halloween. And … I’m okay with that.
10. Make four new recipes. // Again, 50% done. I made two. There was definitely enough time to make four new recipes, but I didn’t plan out what I was going to make and when I was going to make it, so you can guess what happened next. The two recipes I did make were fantastic. What did I make, you might be asking! Well, LET ME TELL YOU. I made Peruvian-Style Roast Chicken and a One-Pot Taco Casserole I found on MyFitnessPal.
    
11. Celebrate my friend Audrey’s wedding! // Y’all, I did this and it was so good. I went to Oklahoma City, had a four hour voice lesson (and I’m not exaggerating), ate a lot of delicious food, and saw my beautiful friend marry the love of her life. It doesn’t get much better than that.
    
12. Drink tea. Burn candles. // The weather has been deliciously wonky here, going up into the 70s and then down again without abandon, so I haven’t really felt the hot tea spirit as much as I should have. But uh … I have burned a lot of candles. And will continue to do so.
13. Track my meals. // Yup! Did this. I didn’t track when I was in OKC, because why would I even do that when I could just eat #allthethings without abandon? I GOTTA LIVE, Y’ALL. Anyway, other than that weekend, I absolutely did this.
14. Print out a calendar and write in potential dates. // My calendar is printed and my dates are … not in it. Yet. I am going to do this before November starts. MARK MY WORDS. I have typed this, so now I have to do it.
15. Get a haircut. // I am ashamed to say that NOPE, this didn’t happen. Your girl still has a hair cape with split ends.
16. Read four books. // I was hoping to call this one 50% done, but it’s more like 35% done. I finished my fiction book within 48 hours, and then I got a notice from the library that one of my holds was ready for checkout … and of course it was Helter Skelter, which is a bit longer than I probably would have chosen for my non-fiction book. I’ve spent the majority of the month reading that and then I saw last night that it had unexpectedly been returned early? I DON’T KNOW BUT I AM MAD ABOUT IT. Hopefully, timeblocking will help with my reading for next month. I may try listening to an audiobook or two next month, as well.If you want to see what I’m reading, follow me over at Goodreads.
17. Watch four operas. // Nope. Didn’t plan for it, didn’t schedule the time, forgot.
18. Listen to two classical works and write about them. // Nope. Didn’t plan for it. Didn’t schedule. Forgot.
19. Listen to two non-classical albums and write about them. // Nope. Are you sensing a pattern here?
20. Go to a movie. // I still haven’t done this! I am the worst at self-care that involves leaving my house.
21. Take on at least five transcription jobs a week. // At the end of the day, I did not get this done, but the weeks I did transcribe, I did a LOT of transcribing, so I’m calling it accomplished.
22. Create at least four products for my Teachers Pay Teachers store. // 50% done. I made two. One product is posted and one product I did today. I know I could be more prolific; I have so many ideas I want to execute. I’ve just got to schedule the time in and make a plan!
    As a side note, if you’re a music teacher-y type and want some cool stuff to use with your studios (for group or private teaching), you should definitely follow me at Southern Fried Soprano on TpT.
23. Create running list of blog post ideas in Evernote. // I haven’t moved my list to Evernote yet, but I did write a list!
24. Create a blog editorial calendar. // Nope. Again, I didn’t schedule the time to do this and therefore, I did not do it.
25. Post one blog weekly. // I did not manage one blog weekly, but I did manage three posts in October (four if you’re counting this one!), which is like, more than most of 2018. PROGRESS.
26. Gratitude journal. // Nope, and I think this is the one I am most ashamed of not accomplishing? Why didn’t I do this? I literally have no excuse.

What have I learned this month about setting goals? It’s not enough just to set goals. You must also meticulously design a plan for accomplishing them.

As for me, I did a fantastic job of deciding what was important to me in October. I’m totally allowed to pat myself on the back for this—this is my blog, after all! GOOD JOB ME. However, with some of my smaller goals, I didn’t create a plan for follow through. The bulk of those goals fell by the wayside.

It would be easy to be super bummed about all the goals I didn’t make progress on in October, but frankly? I’m going to take the lessons learned, adjust accordingly, and attack them differently going forward.

I think it’s important for me to be honest about what I did get done and what I didn’t–it’s easy to only post about my successes. I don’t consider the things I didn’t get done failures, either. They just haven’t happened yet! I need to analyze why, determine if those things are still important to me, and adjust my plans (or, in some cases, MAKE a plan!).

I was the most successful with goals that I have prioritized over a longer period of time. For instance, I was super successful with tracking my meals, but I have also been doing that pretty much non-stop since the end of January. It’s safe to say that continuing to track my meals in October (I use MyFitnessPal, by the way) was not going to be such a stretch to do. It’s a habit I’ve developed.

Contrast that with my goals to watch two operas and two new pieces of music and write about them? I didn’t plan out how I was going to accomplish it, just that I was going to, at some point. Nebulous planning leads to nebulous accomplishment!

Habits are fascinating to me. I guess you could say I am a creature of habit. I’d like to say I’m super spontaneous, and there are definitely facets of my personality that are, but for the most part, I like to know what I’m doing, when I’m doing it, and how it’s getting done.

I learned a lot about myself in October and how I like to get things done. I’m looking forward to November and all it brings–goals included! I’ll be posting my November goals this week, so stay tuned!

How did you do on your goals for October? What would you like to get done in November?

It’s cliché, but these next three months are hands-down my favorite. No questions asked. No time to think needed. I love the weather, the flavors, the holidays, celebrations, and special occasions. I don’t care how basic that makes me.

I am acutely aware that at some point I will be miserably cold and shivering under four or five layers, but for the time being, I’m going to enjoy wearing makeup and not feeling like it’s melting down my face five minutes later. (Yes, I have setting spray. Don’t @ me.)

These upcoming months mean longer outside walks with Lily Munster (sans mosquitoes), comforting, hearty meals featuring spicy and rich flavors, warm baths, big cups of tea, blankets, oversized sweaters, open windows (at least for a few weeks), candlelight, and lot of general merriment. Even if I don’t have any parties scheduled in my planner, every day is its own little celebration.

I am that girl who got her PSL at Starbucks on launch day–which, if you recall, was in August. I do have a tiny bit of shame, so I asked the barista as casually as I possibly could, though I don’t think I fooled anyone.

I like cardigans. I like cardigans even more when I can wear them and not sweat.

The smells and tastes of this season are things I enjoy year-round.

I stock up on seasonal scents during this time so even when it’s April and everyone’s talking about flowers (which I enjoy), I’m still smelling peppercorn and spice and pumpkin.

Above all, I am just made for this season. I am stoked about fall.

Today in Kansas, the forecast is 89 degrees. Summer’s last stand! My AC is whizzing and whirring, even though I try my best not to run it past September. Outside on my porch, #dirtclods2018 maintain a strong presence–I’m up to my eyeballs in peppers. Despite a few days last week of lower temperatures, it doesn’t quite feel like fall is ready to stay.

Regardless, I am in Full Fall Mode™. My apartment is decorated for Halloween (though I doubt anyone but me [and maybe the Internet]) will really get to see it. There’s a pumpkin candle burning and I’m thinking about all the things I want to do in the last months of 2018.

I had a hard time thinking about how to structure my goals for October. It’s not at all challenging for me to make lists of things I want to do. In fact, I frequently overwhelm myself with lists of tasks.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see I regularly post pictures of my weekly goal checkboxes. There’s something so satisfying about putting a big X in a little box.

But beware! My boxes and lists can be dangerous! I can get so into the idea of checking off the box that I forget the reason I’m doing the task in the first place. The big why. What’s the point?

This October, I am trying to meet myself somewhere in the middle. As I planned out my October goals, I found myself in the between-space of making lists of tasks and lists of reasons why. In compromise, I decided to write the big picture and then how I hoped to accomplish that this month.

October Goals

I want to get more stuff done and get organized.

1. Map out my week and time-block my days. // I know there are a lot of things I want to do. I also know there are many things I have to do. My life as a performer and teacher means an irregular schedule, but even so, there are a lot of stationary things on my calendar. I’m hoping a visual representation of my days will show me the little pockets of time I waste and that I can use for other things! Flexibility is key, I think, to make sure I maintain a balance between a nice routine and a stressful schedule.
2. Create a budget. // I am not bad with money, but I want to be even better. I am saving for a lot of things right now (maybe more on that later). Knowing my fixed expenses will tell me how much I can devote to those things.
3. Track my spending. // I want to be more mindful of where my money is going. There are lots of apps and digital tools I could use for this, but I will use an old-fashioned paper transaction register. Physically writing down each expenditure will force me to think about what I’m spending my money on.
4. Clean out my iPhone photos. // I take a lot of screenshots of quotes, books, and other things I want to remember as I mindlessly scroll through the Internet (which … hopefully by the end of this month, I will be doing a lot less of). I tell myself I’ll put the ideas in another place and then I never do, which results in a backlog of screenshots clogging up my phone. TIME TO PURGE.
5. Organize my Evernote. // I used Evernote religiously in undergrad. In grad school, I stopped for some reason … maybe because I realized that I’d rather take notes on paper. I love bullet journaling but I am not willing to add another paper object to my routine right now (my paper planner is fine). A few weeks ago, I decided to start using Evernote again and I’m remembering just how useful it was!
6. Clean out my Pocket. // I feel like a digital hoarder, but yeah. Lots of articles and things in my Pocket that I need to sort through, read, or delete.

I want to savor and enjoy fall.

1. Celebrate fall and Halloween in the studio! // I am already on the case with this one. On Monday, I showed up to work wearing a pumpkin headband and my first pair of seasonal leggings. (I literally cannot be stopped. You cannot stop me. I am unstoppable.) I also decided to create a practice incentive for my students with the Super Stash for Spooktacular Students™. More fall and Halloween fun is forthcoming!
2. Decorate my apartment for Halloween. // I have already done this one, too. LOOK AT ME GO.
3. Carve a pumpkin. // I’m not sure if I will make it to a pumpkin patch (who wants to go with me?), but no matter what, I’m determined to carve a pumpkin. Will I top last year’s Law & Order: SVU pumpkin? Time will tell. The answer is probably no.
4. Make four new recipes. // Last year during Advent, I made a new recipe every week and I had so much fun. I love cooking, but when you live alone, making new things is a big commitment.
5. Celebrate my friend Audrey’s wedding! // I have been invited to a number of weddings over the last few years, but because of schedules and distance, I haven’t been able to attend any of them. My dear friend Audrey is getting married in Oklahoma on October 20th and she invited me! I am going! I am going to a wedding!
6. Drink tea. Burn candles. // #justGeorgeannethings

I want to continue focusing on my health and happiness.

1. Track my meals. // This is decidedly not a weight loss or “”””Health”””” blog (whatever that means), but it is a Georgeanne Blog, where I talk about things a Georgeanne is doing, and every day since the end of January, I have been tracking my meals. I am going to continue doing that. It makes me happy.

I want to be prepared for a 2019 audition season.

I don’t want to go into too much detail about this one yet, mostly because I am still sorting it out, but I do have at least one tangible action step related to this already set.

1. Print out a calendar and write in potential dates. // A simple but essential step.

I want to invest in myself.

1. Get a haircut. // Y’all, it’s been … almost three years. I’m going to leave it at that.
2. Read four books. // Many of my friends are super-readers. The other day, I saw another blogger report she had read 24 books! Awe-inspiring, honestly. While I am not shooting for that level of reading, I do hope to read more in October. Time-blocking my day will help me identify pockets of time where I can crack open a book. I plan to read one book for personal development, one music-related book, one fiction book, and one non-fiction book.
3. Watch four operas. // I learn so much about singing and performing when I watch live performances. Even if I can’t experience a performance in person, there are lots of options for me to stream or watch broadcasts, so in October, I am going to develop my craft by making opera-watching a priority.
4. Listen to two classical works and write about them.
5. Listen to two albums (non-classical) and write about them.
   
6. Go to a movie. // The last movie I saw in theaters was LEGO Batman (10/10, highly recommend), so it’s been a hot second. So far, I think I’m going to go see A Star is Born.

I want to make money.

(HAHAHAHAH DON’T WE ALL)

1. Take on at least five transcription jobs a week. // At the beginning of September, I had 39 private students! I am grateful to teach so much, but as my teaching schedule has grown more rigorous, my time for side-hustling has decreased. Something is better than nothing, though, so I am going to
2. Create at least four products for my Teachers Pay Teachers store. // I have been privately-teaching voice and beginning piano for a little over a year now, and I have noticed that lots of the resources published with method books don’t meet the needs of my students. They’re also very expensive, which is a strain on my students and often a strain on me. So, I started making my own. And because we’ve all gotta hustle, I started sharing these things with other teachers on Teachers Pay Teachers. My promise to myself has been that I would begin only by creating things I needed to use with my students … and I’m doing just that!

I want to grow my blog.

1. Create a running list of blog post ideas in Evernote.
2. Create an editorial calendar.
3. Post one new blog weekly.

I want to exude joy.

1. Gratitude journal. // I formerly used an app for this, but I may use an Evernote notebook this time around.

Whew! We made it, y’all. I know it’s a lot, but I am committed to crushing it this month. I’d love to hear about your goals for this October. What are you planning to do?

PS. If you’d like to learn a little bit more about how I set goals, start here.

Y’all, it’s time to get SMART about goals.

Most of the musicians I’ve gotten to know so far in my life have been big, bold, bright thinkers. They have no problem coming up with grand ideas. They dream big. I’d like to think I’m among that group (jury’s out, though).

Being a big, bold dreamer is a great thing! But when it comes to the nitty-gritty of achieving things, they can get overwhelmed with their larger-than-life, abstract ideas and get stuck when it comes to the actual doing of the thing.

The day I was introduced to SMART goal-setting, though? That changed my life.

In my last goal post (tee-hee), we talked about choosing a single word to define our year. That single word helps us see the Big Picture–our “why” of our to-do list.

Stay with me, y’all, but in this post, I’m about to tell you to.. zoom in.

It’s time to turn that Big Picture into goals that aren’t just nice, fuzzy, grandiose things.

Our Big Picture becomes actionable when we set SMART goals.

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable/Achievable
R – Relevant
T – Time-Bound

Let’s break this down a little.

1. Specific

I’m a creative, which means I can spurt out purple prose and vague nothings with the best of them. I love the abstract and the inexplicable, but those things are liabilities rather than assets when it comes to setting goals that are actually achievable.

For instance, consider the following:

“I want to improve my technique.”
“I want to be happier.”
“I want to grow my savings.”

These are all wonderful things, but unfortunately, they’re not very specific.

Take the second goal on our list, “I want to be happier.”

Well, sure. Everyone wants to be happier. But.. how? What does that mean? What does being happy look like for you?

Getting specific about that particular answer may help you write your question.

2. Measurable

For those of us in creative professions, finding a way to measure goals and progress can be difficult.

We can’t measure success by our audition-to-gig-ratio (every soprano would likely want to die).

How can you measure your goal without relying on a gatekeeper?

What are other ways of measuring success?

Let’s take a look at the “improve my technique” goal. When I’m working on my vocal exercises, day after day, it can be difficult to measure progress or success. You can’t measure an improvement of technique by how many compliments you get or how many auditions you land. Those measures of success rely on other people.

What we want is a measure of achievement that is reliant upon only you.

Take a look at your goals and ask—how will I measure this?

For our technique goal, maybe you say “I will sing my Marchesi exercises for 5 minutes every day for 20 days straight.”

That’s something you can measure.

3. Attainable

We all want to hear “shoot for the moon!”, but the truth is that some goals just aren’t realistic for us at present.

I’ll do myself the supreme honor of throwing myself under the bus.

For instance, it is not realistic for me to assume that I will be singing leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera by the end of next week or even 2017 (unless someone from the Met is reading this, in which case—hey y’all, call me?). It’s just not.

This is a goal that is certainly achievable or attainable in my lifetime. It is not achievable today.

We set ourselves up for failure by expecting too much of ourselves in too short of an amount of time.

Be gentle with yourself and your progress.

4. Relevant

This is like, the crunchy-granola woo-woo letter of the SMART acronym. When setting your goal, ask yourself: “is this relevant to me?”

Take a look at what achieving your goal would mean. If your goal is to land that high-powered internship or Young Artist Program, it may mean uprooting your life. Is that cool with you? Is that who you want to be?

What’s your objective behind your goals? What’s your “why”? (Think back to your Big Picture!)

5. Time-Bound

Creative professions and solo entrepreneurship can suck because at the end of the day, the boss is you.

You don’t have someone telling you to go practice because you have to sing a jury at the end of the semester. You don’t improve your languages because you don’t have a French or a German test. There’s no deadline.

Your goals are dead without deadlines.

Do you know how many times I’ve said I wanted to do something? Do you know how many times I’ve written that something down without a date of completion? Do you know how many times that goal has actually been achieved?

Spoiler alert: very few times.

Give yourself a deadline for your goals. Instill a sense of urgency and importance in yourself. These things are important! You want them! And they’re going to take some work. They’re going to take time. They’re going to take planning and resources. If you want a realistic chance of getting the thing done… buck it up and set a deadline.

An example? Take my “improve technique” goal. Maybe I decide that I want to go through the entire Vaccai book. How long will that take? Sit down and think about it realistically, then write down a date.

Get SMART about your goals, you big, bold dreamer. How can you take your resolutions for this coming year and make them SMART?

There’s a billion things you want to do and a billion obstacles in your way.

How can you cut through the clutter and clarify what’s important for the new year?

So far, we’ve started our goal-setting journey and we have taken a look back by asking five essential questions. We’ve seen a little bit of what has worked, what hasn’t worked, and we hopefully have a bit of an idea where we (maybe, kinda, sorta) want to go from this point forward.

We know where we are.

And boy, it seems a little messy, doesn’t it?

It’s easy to look at our list of completed goals and unfinished business and see an incoherent jumble. There’s no rhyme or reason, no grouping, no theme.

Today’s challenge is to choose one word to define your next year.

I am in no way the first person to think of this concept. Many creatives, writers, and visionaries incorporate this idea into their planning and goal-setting.

To name just a few: Ali Edwards has One Little Word®, Susannah Conway has Find Your Word, Gretchen Rubin has a mini-sode of her podcast Happier, and even my dear friend/mentor Jackie Wolven is helping others find their word.

Cool. It’s trendy. What’s the point, though?

Anyone with a to-do list will tell you it’s incredibly satisfying to cross things off of it. It’s rewarding–so much so that we sometimes write tasks we’ve already completed at the top of that to-do list just so we can cross them off (guilty as charged).

But goal setting isn’t about making a to-do list. It isn’t about checking things off.

It’s about the bigger picture.

The weird paradox of goal setting is that in order to achieve the bigger picture, we’ve got to get specific with our goals.

Our lives aren’t lists. They can’t be. Our lives are big picture things.

By choosing a word to define our year, we keep our eyes on our own big picture.

Go back to that jumble of things you wanted to do last year and the awesome things you managed to get done.

What jumps out at you?

What did you want but not get? What did you have that you didn’t expect?

All of these questions can help you find your word.

Maybe your word is “faith,” because you want to explore your spirituality.
Maybe it’s “authentic,” because you haven’t really felt like yourself in a long time.
Maybe it’s “home,” because you’re finally building that dream house you’ve always wanted.

Your word doesn’t have to be an SAT vocabulary word.
It doesn’t have to be anything but meaningful to you.

Your word is short and sweet, so when life gets complicated, you can remain clear on what your purpose is. The Big Picture.

Your word should summarize your Big Picture. What do you want this next year to look like? What do you want to be doing?

More business opportunities or auditions?
More time spent with family?
Less time hustling, more time savoring?
Building relationships with those you love?
Living less out of fear and more out of faith?

Go on, pick your word. Once you’ve got it, share it with me in the comments.

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You know you want next year to be different.

If I had to guess, you’d probably say you want it to be better.

You’re staring at Different and Better, as if they were exotic, distant locales for your next vacation. You know you want to go there. But how?

To know how to get somewhere, you first have to know your starting point.

Reminiscing over this dumpster fire of a year (shout out to you, 2016) may not be the most pleasurable task, but remember: we’re here to grow, and growing pains aren’t just a thing that you gave up past puberty.

1. What did I want to do?

Time to pull out your list of resolutions that may or may not have fallen under your bed. What’s on that list?

Maybe you wanted to:

• learn new arias for your package
• pay down a credit card
• finally open your private voice studio
• start a blog or website
• take a vacation to Disneyland
• lose 20 pounds
• go to NYC for an audition season
• read 25 books

Knowing what you wanted to do this year leads us to the next question…

2. What did I accomplish? What went well?

Alright, slugger. What did you get done?

Don’t be discouraged if some of those things are partially completed.

Maybe you didn’t lose 20 pounds, but you did stop eating fast food four times a week.
Maybe you didn’t read 25 books, but you did read four.
Maybe you didn’t learn those arias for your audition package, but you made a list of repertoire.

Give yourself a pat on the back for your small victories this year, and then buckle in and take the next step.

3. What didn’t happen?

We just took a look at what we achieved this year. Progress is progress, no matter how small!

But. We didn’t get some things done.

• Making a list of repertoire is not the same as learning the music on the list.
• Curating a Pinterest board of content ideas is a great start, but it’s not starting a blog.
• Ordering the book of Marchesi vocalises on Amazon is awesome, but it’s not practicing them.
• Thinking about going to NYC for audition season is A+, but it’s not making a plan to make it happen.

You can acknowledge that you made progress and acknowledge you didn’t achieve the desired outcome.

Saying “okay, I didn’t complete X” doesn’t diminish or negate the work you did toward your goal.

It is, however, doing the most important thing of this work: being honest.

Which leads us to..

4. Why didn’t I do the things I wanted?

Usually, at least part of the answer is obvious.

“I didn’t go to Disneyland because I couldn’t afford it.”
“I didn’t read 20 books because I was too busy.”
“I didn’t start my professional website because I’m not good with computers.”
“I didn’t learn new arias for my audition package because I don’t know what I should be singing right now.”

These are all truths.

You probably couldn’t afford that vacation to Disneyland.
You didn’t have enough time to read.
You don’t know how to work WordPress or Squarespace or Wix or Weebly.
You never asked your voice teacher and other members of your team about the appropriateness of the arias you wanted to learn.

Pause the movie, y’all. I can almost hear the self-loathing from here.

Remove the judgment from your observations. Let’s not ascribe any existential meaning to them.

I think sometimes we get so caught up in the “why” of our procrastination that we attempt to undo some massive, abstract concept that isn’t easily remedied.

What I’m trying to say is that for most of us (or at least me, and this is my blog, after all), the reasons “why” we haven’t done something aren’t going to disappear overnight. They may never disappear at all.

We may never be wealthy enough to have the resources to do all the things we want to do.
We may never have enough time to read.
We may never be comfortable asking our teachers for recommendations or help networking.

The good news is that we can circumvent the “why,” even if we can’t get rid of it.

5. Where are you now? What matters today?

We’ve taken a look back at our goals/resolutions. We identified the things that we did achieve, even if we didn’t complete the overarching goal. We observed what we didn’t finish. We asked ourselves why.

“I am so busy I can’t find time to read.”
“I am afraid of asking for help on my aria package.”
“I am a person who doesn’t have the financial resources to treat myself to the things I deserve.”

Now that we know the obstacles that are in front of us, we can start brainstorming ways to circumvent them.

Next up in the series: how one word can make the difference in setting goals. Don’t miss it! Sign up for my e-mail newsletter here: Southern Fried Soprano newsletter.

(This is part of a series on Goal Setting for the New Year. If you missed the first post, learn why I started this series in the first place.)

Tempus fugit, y’all. Time flies. We are at the end of another year.

Say it with me:

“Next year will be different.”

This past year was rough for a lot of my friends and neighbors. It was rough for a lot of the world. There is a lot that is uncertain. I feel uneasy about the state of things. Maybe you do, too. Many things are out of our hands.

But then again, many things are in our hands.

If you’re anything like me, you look back at the past year and compare all the things you managed to accomplish with the litany of things that you set out to do in January.

“I was going to go through all of the Marchesi exercises.”
“I was going to revamp my aria package.”
“I was going to research and learn repertoire for that competition.”
“I was going to improve my [insert language here].”
“I was going to improve my network—I was going to make connections.”

So—why didn’t you? Why didn’t I?

The answer is: lots of reasons. Reasons that matter, and, for our intents and purposes, don’t matter a whit for what’s to come in this next season of growth.

There are a lot of people on this here magical Internet who would like you to believe that you will achieve any goal you set.

I don’t do the lying thing, so I’m about to say something that may raise a few eyebrows.

We don’t achieve things just because of our effort.

Man, does that suck. I’m mad about it. You should be, too.

If you try, and you try hard, and you do a good job, you should Get the Thing™. That makes like, sense, or something.

Unfortunately, that’s not the way the world works.

Effort + Heart + Good Work ≠ Achievement

I can’t promise you that you that you’ll get into that young artist program, win that competition, or even sing five arias well at the end of this next month, season, year, whatever.

Those sorts of things involve a LOT of variables. I also suck at math, so don’t ask me for more equations with fewer variables.

What I can promise you is that you definitely won’t come close–not even a little bit–to achieving any of the things you want if you don’t start down the long, sometimes-arduous path of Doing the Work. 

So what?

Over the next few days, my dear Invisible Internet Audience, I am going to share with you a few of the ways that I reflect on my progress, set goals, and begin doing the work to achieve those goals. 

I am a work in progress. You are, too. I’m not going to pretend to have it figured out and I don’t expect you to have it figured out after reading this series.

What I do expect, though, is that you’ll come away with it with a little bit of a clearer vision on how to get just a little bit closer to making this next year a little bit different. 

I keep saying “a little bit” because that’s the key. We’re making things a little bit different.

If you want to join me, and not miss a single post, sign up for my new email newsletter here.

Let’s do this.

Surprise, y’all! It’s 2016, can you believe it?

Part of me is a little surprised I didn’t inundate y’all in January with posts about my goals for this year. I’m constantly making lists, doodling in my planner, ticking off check boxes.. and my planning for the year ahead usually comes in December of the year before!

This past December, though, I was a lot more introspective about the things I want to accomplish in 2016. Last year, I wasn’t in school, and so the world seemed pretty purpose-barren, if you catch my drift. I definitely was doing things, but my instinct was to Create an Endless List of Things to Do™ so that I didn’t feel I was wasting my life away waiting for something to happen.

Now? I’m in grad school! I am very busy! I have things to do! People to see! Classes to attend! Rehearsals! Teaching! …. Snacking! Snacking to do. That’s probably the most important one, right? Definitely not practicing…

Anyway, the point is that I’m trying to simplify things a little for Good Old Georgie™. My to-do list is already pretty long without me adding to it. I’m stressed enough without me making more things to be stressed about.

I want to do things because I want to do things, not because I have to do things so I can blog about doing things.

But! It’s February and I’ve still got a few pet projects and miscellaneous tasks I’d like to get done in addition to all of the stuff I’m Required to Do. So, without further babble:

February Goals

1. Blog once a week.

   Did y’all know I have a blog? If you didn’t, I don’t blame you–it’s not like I have written in it. There’s a lot of cool things happening in my life and I want to share them. So why am I not? Because I’m.. a dinkus? Lazy? I don’t know. Probably overwhelmed.

   Regardless, I think this goal is totally doable. And since I wrote about it on the Internet, I’ll do it, because in addition to being a dinkus, I also am prideful and don’t want to fail. So.

   It also goes without saying that I’ve missed the community of my fellow bloggers–and especially the folks at Arkansas Women Bloggers.

2. Make four new recipes.

   I’ve been on a bit of a wonky, inflexible (I don’t want to use the word restricting) diet this January and I am so looking forward to breaking open my cookbooks again and making some good food. With rehearsals and classes and teaching and life, I don’t think I want to commit to making one new thing a week, but I guess with the whole “four” thing it averages out to that. I have a feeling one week I’ll double up or something (probably Valentine’s Day–I’m finally getting a pantry with like, THINGS I CAN USE TO BAKE???).

3. Read two books.

   I currently have 20 books checked out of the library. I am reading about 5 of them currently. Basically, this one should be easy.

Ta-da! There you have it, folks. There’s a lot of other stuff that’s going to go down this coming month, so get ready. See y’all soon!

Do you have any goals for February? Share them with me!

Rabbit, rabbit. It’s July. One month (well, not even!) left in Little Rock. There’s a lot I want to accomplish–and it’s not all just on my Arkansas Bucket List.

I think I’ll be able to get three out of the five tasks done by the end of this month. As much as I’d love to go to Helena, I don’t think I can afford to get away from work for long enough to make a trip. And to Marianna? Well, we’ll see.. but I’m not hopeful.

The good news is, these places will still be here when I visit. The bad news is that I didn’t finish a list, which is pretty painful for me.

As for my June goal of being more kind to myself, I think I did an alright job. The end of this month has been rougher than the previous weeks, but I think the approaching move is stressing me out, so I’m not too worried.

What about July’s goals?

July Goals

– Read at least 3 books. I’ve been on a roll recently. I started re-reading A Series of Unfortunate Events, so in the past two weeks alone, I’ve read three books. I’ve already accomplished my goal for the year (admittedly, I set the bar pretty low). Follow me on Goodreads and see what I’m reading!

– Make something delicious with my harvest from the garden. I’ve got cucumbers coming in, tons of peppers, and I may yet have three eggplants… My tomatoes have been good to me. I can’t seem to grow a zucchini or a summer squash to save my life, though. Oh, well.

– SECRET MUSICAL GOAL. Sorry to be so vague, y’all, but I just need to get some of my own stuff in order.

Here’s to July. What are your goals?