Ariel Publicity Blog Challenge WAVE 2 WEEK 1

Ok, so, this is my second attempt at this challenge. I would say I trailed off at about the second week during wave 1, so I'm going to simply repost my first week's entry as it was solid... not weakened by distractions or technical difficulties. I'll probably revisit and redo my work from week 2 on, but for now, here goes:

WEEK 1: Get your mind right!

I consider myself a chronic dreamer, so it came as a surprise to me that allowing myself to dream big in the form of specific goals that have a deadline was a little difficult at first. My personal motto is ‘delusional dreams, realistic goals’ … but after doing the exercises in the Week 1 chapter I see that those two dots are pretty far apart! I dream big, no problem there! But my realistic goals tend to be, I see now, too small. Only at a what-I-need-to-accomplish-today level. Like practicing guitar. Rewriting a song. Recording a demo. Which is great, and necessary, and is indeed moving me forward. But in setting bigger goals, goals to accomplish THIS YEAR… that is a key step I’ve been missing. And all that space between the everyday, somewhat mundane reality of working on the elements of my craft and the glorious achievements of my wildest dreams seems to have served as a buffer- keeping any fears related to failing (or succeeding?) in the distance.

Now, my personal motto is to some extent tongue-in-cheek and reactionary to the idea of ‘the real world’- as I believe, to an extent, dreams need to be unreal! Dreams need to be beyond what is, a better place in the future that we create in time. Setting goals for the year connects the intangible nature of dreams with the daily activities that slowly manifest them into being. As I was determining what I want to accomplish this year, I kept thinking, ‘OMG I’m really doing this!’ Setting dates for what I want to accomplish this year got me automatically visualizing myself doing what it takes to get there. It got me to visualize the REALITY of my dreams! Wow. So empowering!!

I’m going to keep the details of my goals for the year private, for now. Perhaps I’ll come back at a later date and fill in what they are, but they feel private now, so I want to respect that emotion.

The other exercise that really stuck out to me was to write down 5 little victories every day. I have written down a list of everything I’d ideally like to accomplish to improve as a musician and as a songwriter everyday, but it’s impossible to do everything everyday, so I started to write down what I do do so that I wouldn’t accidentally neglect any one element for too long. So I can already tell that this is an incredibly powerful practice! I especially like the idea of considering them victories! As indeed, they are.

I’m going to write out my goals on a large sheet of paper and frame it- I’ll post a picture when I’m done.

Until next week…