Achieving your dreams: 3 tips to set goals
It’s a new year which often means for many people resolutions to take into 2024. But too often, we set out big goals and when we fail we stop at the first hurdle. On top of that, as an emerging artist, you often have to juggle your day job, your art and your personal life. So, how do you make setting goals work for you?
Define your top priority
It can be anything but you have to set it. What are you unwillling to compromise when life gets too overwhelming? If you ran out of time and had to decide this is not a priority’ what would you regret?
I am the type of person who wants to take on so much at the same time and obviously I can’t manage to excel in everything so I get frustrated. Once my husband told me “you are trying to do many very difficult things at the same time”. And it rang true. At the time, I was planning a wedding, trying to find a new day job, establish myself as a filmmaker and learn to drive.
All of those things could not be a top priority. They were difficult to do on their own but all of them at once, quite impossible. Since then, I choose one thing that will be top priority and to which I will commit most of my energy.
Make sure it is within your control
In 2019, I was working in hospitality and wanted to leave it for a job better suited to me. So I would mark down as one of my goals: “find a new job”.
For the next two years, when I didn’t find a new job, I felt like I had failed. My goal was not clear, not specific enough and some of it wasn’t within my control. To find one, someone had to make the decision to hire me.So when 2022 came around, I decided to shift the focus to putting myself out there. I applied to every job I liked, went to networking events, emailed to get some work experience. Not all of it worked out but counting all those positive things as wins meant that I succeeded.
Sometimes it can take a while before we make things happen especially as emerging artists so it is important to see what you can control as a win.
Celebrate every win
I mean literally celebrate them. Note down the stepping stones you need to go through to achieve your goal and celebrate them when you achieve them. I feel like a hypocrite writing this because I have a tendency when I achieve something to not see what I have accomplished but look towards the next step and the step after that.
But it also means, I am perpetually chasing something and never appreciating my achievements. It also means I don’t really enjoy the journey. If you are like me, write down how you want to celebrate and hold yourself to this.
With my husband, we buy root beers when one of us achieves something. It can be small, it can be big but it will make it so much more enjoyable. As artists, we are often told the journey will be hard and miserable but it doesn’t have to be.
And don’t forget, you don’t have to set goals if that’s not your thing. You are all going to have an amazing year regardless! If that’s your thing, what are your goals for 2024?