I have a love-hate relationship with the New Year.
I love the unique freshness of a clean slate that January 1st brings. But, in reality, it's no different from July 17th or October 11th or any other day. What are your Labor Day resolutions?
Despite being a regular goal-setter throughout the year, I tend to get overzealous with the New Year, setting way too many unattainable goals.
I also feel a little cautious and burned from journaling on January 1st, 2020: "This is MY year." Then, twenty years later, on January 1st, 2021: "This was a year."
2023, however, was huge for me.
I went from playing full-time in an orchestra in Canada to flying all over the country each week freelancing to winning a military premier band audition to basic training to finally settling into this new — much, much different — life and job that I love in DC.
I did not see this coming a year ago. Pushing the ground at 0545 at boot camp was not in my 2023 goals. Leaving Montreal and moving to DC was not in my 2023 goals. But ultimately, everything that unfolded *did* fit into the greater goals I had for myself — a job that offered x, y, and z for my life and career. Check, check, and check.
So, here we are again, another January 1st — nursing champagne headaches or shoulder aches from sleeping awkwardly right through midnight (me) — and thinking about the year ahead.
While a big believer in goal-setting (and re-setting, and re-setting, and re-adjusting, forever and ever), I am not a fan of “resolutions.” They are empty, lofty statements missing a few key ingredients... the action steps to get there and any reflection on how you got to this place to begin with.
I think New Year goals should involve three steps:
Looking back at the previous year
Taking an honest look at where you are today
Setting clear, actionable goals with steps and habits for the year ahead
As such, I have created a free workbook for goal-setting.
At first, I tried to create a workbook strictly for musical goals — but I don't think life is so clearly separate from one's musical life. This playbook gives you the space to set goals in any area of your musical and personal life. Just like the Audition Playbook, it's a choose-your-own-adventure type deal — don't feel obligated to answer every question. Do what makes sense for you.
Lastly, I am sharing a link below to "Buy Me a Coffee."
While there are a few things for sale on this site, there are also a lot of free tools, articles, and interviews. My goal is to create many more totally free resources in the future... but nothing is truly free.
There is a not-insignificant cost to maintaining the website and the many hours that go into creating the tools, conducting and transcribing interviews, etc. If you've gotten some value out of the free resources here and feel inclined to support future projects, it is greatly appreciated. Many thanks and Happy New Year!
— Rachelle
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Click here to “Buy Me a Coffee.”
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