Life-Giving Goals
Every Tuesday, I have a “Little Chat with Shannon” live stream in the 52 Cues Community. This topic was on my mind recently.
My journey with goal setting began during my time at a private college in Tennessee. After ten rewarding years there, I found myself at the helm as the vice president for academics while Dave, led the music department. Our institution was a vibrant hub filled with faculty and students, creating an invigorating environment that I genuinely enjoyed (until I didn’t…but that’s for another day). It was around this time that a shift to Florida materialized for us, offering a massive quality of life upgrade.
This Doesn’t Compute!
During my tenure as vice president, I was responsible for what we called 'pre-assessment' and 'post-assessment.' Essentially, we set learning goals before each academic year, and the at the end of the year, evaluated whether these goals were achieved. Accreditation required us to set goals - an aspect that should have been exciting, but the mere mention of the word 'goals' made our faculty deflate.
Despite our team being a group of the most extraordinary, team-oriented, smart individuals I've known, there was always a negative reaction when it was goal-setting time. The disconnect was even more surprising because we had organized seminars on how to set effective goals—like SMART goals, so popular these days. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Recasting the Goal-setting Paradigm
So these days, Dave and I hold weekly meetings to discuss 52 Cues, workshopping new ideas and checking in on goals like Album Accelerator and the Music Production Primer (coming in Q3 2023). I know how to set goals. I’m an expert! But over time, I noticed that our goals for 52 Cues weren’t quite the usual fare for businesses. I felt that we should have goals like generating a specific amount of revenue by an arbitrary date. Or even having a certain number of subscribers.
The lack of these “corporate” style of benchmarks troubled me at first. I thought surely we were doing it wrong! For a while, I was convinced that without these arbitrary standards, we were just going to flounder about and not go anywhere. I was questioning why two strong, ambitious individuals such as Dave and myself hadn't set these kinds of SMART goals. The answer was simple: these goals felt arbitrary, a source of stress rather than motivation. They were devoid of life and authenticity.
Goal Theory: 2 Types of Goals
So does that mean that goals are bad? Maybe it depends on what the heart of the goal is.
I think two types of goals exist:
Arbitrary Goals
These are SMART-style goals. Let’s face it: most of these goals are completely made up. Did we generate X revenue last quarter? OK, then we must make X+Y revenue next quarter.
These types of goals have the potential to do all sorts of damage! These benchmarks stress us out. Even worse, the rabid pursuit of the arbitrary goal can lead to compromising the character of the organization. We’ve all seen folks who have made questionable decisions—such as letting quality decline or doing a disservice to their users—in order to pursue a life-and-death goal. And that’s not healthy or good.
SMART-style goals can set you up for THE F-WORD: Failure. Sure, having a target to shoot at is good! But there are many variables in achieving your goal that are simply out of your control. For instance, I had a BUNCH of goals set for 2020. COVID wiped them out. They didn’t happen.
Life-giving goals
These are the types of goals Dave and I gravitate toward for 52 Cues. They are born of our passion and expertise, very carefully thought out, and focused on the health of the community.
These goals align with our vision for 52 Cues: Be supportive, have fun, and focus on people. Now that’s life-giving!
Reimagining Goal-setting
I encourage you to join me in this new perspective in goal setting. How can we do that as composers?
Rethink the spirit of the goal
Are your goals life-giving or life-sucking?
Instead of setting an arbitrary target like “I will write 100 tracks this year,” consider focusing on consistently creating excellent music and sharing it with the world.
Align goals with your character
Do your goals reflect what makes you uniquely you? Do they embody your personal ethos and how you relate to the world?
A life-giving goal will fill you with excitement and anticipation. That energy then permeates your work, and usually brings amazing results!
Goals that revolve around our lives and how we want to live, how we want to treat others—these are the kind of goals that are truly life-giving. They don't add pressure but foster growth and joy.
Put it Into Practice
Let’s be real: we all have commitments and deadlines that we need to meet. We all have to do stuff we don’t absolutely love, and there are occasions where the SMART-style goal is a fantastic tool to use. But when the majority of our most important goals are life-giving and centered around real-life desires and visions, real progress and real transformations happen.
This week, take a moment to review your goals. If your goals energize you and fill you with life, embrace them. If they feel like a burden, maybe it's time to reframe them in a way that aligns more closely with what truly matters to you.
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