On our day off this week, Lisa and I sat at our kitchen table just chilling out and chatting. Out of the blue, Lisa nonchalantly asked me, “what are your goals for this coming fall?” Honestly, I felt a little blindsided by the question. It’s not that we never discuss goal-setting. Au contraire, being freelance artists, it’s a topic that comes up quite frequently. But for some reason on this occasion, it felt a little weird to think about it simply because lately I have not been thinking about it. I’ve just been going with the flow of life and enjoying it. As my manager, Lisa is masterful at keeping on top of details and plans for projects in progress. So it’s often easy for me to detach and just focus on being creative.
But by her asking me that question, it quickly dawned on me that it’s still important for someone like me to have goals even if it’s just to encapsulate what I do now. So because of that, I was able to answer her quite quickly with no less than 4 goals…
1. Continue composing with no inhibitions. Lately, I’ve had immense creative success and personal fulfillment by just writing whenever and wherever I want. Rather than waiting for the opportunity, I make the opportunity. The result has been amazing fresh ideas for new music that I never thought I would do. And most importantly, I am engaged and enjoy the ideas I come up with. I want to continue to have more of that.
2. Connect with more collaborators. I want my fellow artists to know about the body of work I’ve created. I want them to have the opportunity to interpret those works. I want them to get inspired to come up with new ideas on how we might collaborate on a future project. I want my creative efforts to lead to creating new relationships with people that I respect, admire and like.
3. Keep connecting with human beings no matter how much I don’t feel like it. As someone who battles depression, I have a constant tendency to want to be alone. That is not a healthy practice. So I need to keep forcing myself to connect with people, meet-up for coffee or lunch, have get-togethers, etc. Thankfully I know that I will succeed in this goal because I have precedent on my side. Every time in the lead-up to a meeting with a friend, I don’t want it to happen. But when it’s happening, I feel the endorphins pumping and I am filled with a feeling of happiness. After we part, that feeling can continue for some time. It’s like a wondrous happy drug.
4. Don’t make excuses of why I shouldn’t have fun. If there’s something I would like to do that I know would be a great life experience (as trivial or as meaningless as it might be), I should make sure I do it! I am very good at making excuses of why I shouldn’t do something. It’s the self-disciplinarian in me that starts to make all the decisions. But even the most disciplined people need time to have a change of scenery and something different to keep everything fresh. So I’m determined to have fun. I’m determined to live this life to the fullest. I’m determined to make the best version of me.
