Hey Andrew, I love what you're doing on here. It's awesome that people of all ages, but especially young people, can find you through a joy of drums, or music and rhythm, and you're following it with the real-talk. A lot of people out there lack that positive mentorship in their lives. You are definitely connecting with people.
Interesting! Some of my thoughts: 1) Short- to mid-term goals can be very effective, but I would say that long-term goals are better replaced by a "desired direction of travel". It keeps you more alert for those side turnings you mentioned, and means you don't have an endpoint that you either don't reach or that disappoints when you get there. Rather than "I want to become a rock star", how about "I want my reach in the rock world to keep growing"? Your next steps will be the same in each case, but if at some point before you make it big you want to change that to "I want a better balance between touring and family life" you're not giving up on a life goal, you're just steering in a different direction. There's a psychological difference. 2) Lots of things to do with your goals will be out of your control. What's _within_ your control, however, is being prepared to grab those opportunities with both hands when they present themselves (like your experiences with sight reading). I wrote countless job applications and never got an interview over six months, but then I literally turned up to an interview in somebody else's place and said "I'm not who you were expecting, but I think I can do the job" - and after interviewing me they took me on (and I was still there 8 years later). There were other things I could have done (e.g., find someone to teach me how to write better applications, although that was harder pre-Internet), but I saw a possible opening and short-circuited all that. 3) I dislike forced acronyms, but (unlike directions of travel) short- and mid-term goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). I have a mid-term goal of recording an acappella version of the Nightwish song _Alpenglow_ before I retire. Within that, the biggest subgoal is to learn enough beatboxing to make it achievable. This is very measurable because I have a transcript of the drum part - I don't need to become a versatile beatboxer! - and it's relevant to the larger goal, plus it inherits the specificity and time bound from that. It's the sort of goal where it would be easy to say "it would be nice to do that sometime"...but then it's not a SMART goal, and Real Life _will_ keep postponing any work on it. 4) On a related note, if you care enough about something to make it a goal, tell someone (in fact I just did with my _Alpenglow_ example). Don't go on and on about it - that can be a tool for procrastination, and it can also drain your enthusiasm - just let someone know. It helps make it concrete. 5) Don't set goals that aren't really yours, because you won't maintain the focus and determination required. This can happen through pressure from parents or peers, or from mistaking a step towards a goal as the goal itself. For example, I _thought_ I had a goal of becoming a teacher, and even got as far as applying for teacher training in my university town. I did no prep for the interview at all, which naturally went badly, but I wasn't bothered when I didn't get it (and that confused me). My mum reminded me I'd been upset as a child with people asking what I wanted to be when I had no idea, and she'd suggested I say "a teacher" to shut them up. I'd forgotten that, and just kind of assumed I actually wanted to be a teacher. (That may sound weird, but human brains do even weirder things.) _Of_ _course_ I put no effort into it, it wasn't really my goal, just a step I'd completed towards the goal of "stopping people upsetting me with unanswerable questions"! That's probably enough for now. Thanks for getting my old noggin whirring!
Now that I'm in my early 60's most of my goals are short term. Stay in the pocket and make as few mistakes as possible. Oh, and show up for work sober.😎
Do you have any tips how to sustain the motivation along the way to achieving that goal? That’s something I struggle with the most. I can be hyped up about something but 3 months max and I’m back to my normal self.
Hey Andrew, I love what you're doing on here. It's awesome that people of all ages, but especially young people, can find you through a joy of drums, or music and rhythm, and you're following it with the real-talk. A lot of people out there lack that positive mentorship in their lives. You are definitely connecting with people.
Interesting! Some of my thoughts:
1) Short- to mid-term goals can be very effective, but I would say that long-term goals are better replaced by a "desired direction of travel". It keeps you more alert for those side turnings you mentioned, and means you don't have an endpoint that you either don't reach or that disappoints when you get there. Rather than "I want to become a rock star", how about "I want my reach in the rock world to keep growing"? Your next steps will be the same in each case, but if at some point before you make it big you want to change that to "I want a better balance between touring and family life" you're not giving up on a life goal, you're just steering in a different direction. There's a psychological difference.
2) Lots of things to do with your goals will be out of your control. What's _within_ your control, however, is being prepared to grab those opportunities with both hands when they present themselves (like your experiences with sight reading). I wrote countless job applications and never got an interview over six months, but then I literally turned up to an interview in somebody else's place and said "I'm not who you were expecting, but I think I can do the job" - and after interviewing me they took me on (and I was still there 8 years later). There were other things I could have done (e.g., find someone to teach me how to write better applications, although that was harder pre-Internet), but I saw a possible opening and short-circuited all that.
3) I dislike forced acronyms, but (unlike directions of travel) short- and mid-term goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). I have a mid-term goal of recording an acappella version of the Nightwish song _Alpenglow_ before I retire. Within that, the biggest subgoal is to learn enough beatboxing to make it achievable. This is very measurable because I have a transcript of the drum part - I don't need to become a versatile beatboxer! - and it's relevant to the larger goal, plus it inherits the specificity and time bound from that. It's the sort of goal where it would be easy to say "it would be nice to do that sometime"...but then it's not a SMART goal, and Real Life _will_ keep postponing any work on it.
4) On a related note, if you care enough about something to make it a goal, tell someone (in fact I just did with my _Alpenglow_ example). Don't go on and on about it - that can be a tool for procrastination, and it can also drain your enthusiasm - just let someone know. It helps make it concrete.
5) Don't set goals that aren't really yours, because you won't maintain the focus and determination required. This can happen through pressure from parents or peers, or from mistaking a step towards a goal as the goal itself. For example, I _thought_ I had a goal of becoming a teacher, and even got as far as applying for teacher training in my university town. I did no prep for the interview at all, which naturally went badly, but I wasn't bothered when I didn't get it (and that confused me). My mum reminded me I'd been upset as a child with people asking what I wanted to be when I had no idea, and she'd suggested I say "a teacher" to shut them up. I'd forgotten that, and just kind of assumed I actually wanted to be a teacher. (That may sound weird, but human brains do even weirder things.) _Of_ _course_ I put no effort into it, it wasn't really my goal, just a step I'd completed towards the goal of "stopping people upsetting me with unanswerable questions"!
That's probably enough for now. Thanks for getting my old noggin whirring!
Wise and true words, quite the philosopher Andrew
Keep in mind the great wisdom of Yogi Berra, who said: if you come to a fork in the road, take it!
LOVE IT
Great message and video! Are you waiting for your wife while she's shopping 😁
HAHA!
I was picking up my son. He arrived right at the end so had to stop my rant!
Now that I'm in my early 60's most of my goals are short term. Stay in the pocket and make as few mistakes as possible. Oh, and show up for work sober.😎
That always helps!
So you're saying that goal setting is often mythunderstood?
HAHA
Something like that
lina anderberg
Do you have any tips how to sustain the motivation along the way to achieving that goal? That’s something I struggle with the most. I can be hyped up about something but 3 months max and I’m back to my normal self.