I love running on New Year’s Day, if only for the change of scenery. There are dozens of new runners on the beach path, most of whom I only get to see for a week or two. Their new running shoes, still glaringly white and chemical-scented, will soon vanish into the recesses of their closets. Resolutions tend not to stick, so I don’t make any. Sure, sickness or injury or plain old laziness might keep me indoors for a few days at a stretch, but I’ll be back. I’m a runner.
I’m also a strong advocate for science, but I’m not going to cite all the relevant studies on goal setting here. It’s been pretty well established that those who set goals are more likely to achieve them than those who don’t. On the other hand, those who announce their plans are less motivated to accomplish them. 2009 turned out to be a great year for me. It also happened to be the first year that I didn’t make any resolutions or set any goals – not even secret ones.
Living in California, I’ve learned not to complain about the weather to people outside the state. God forbid I mention the temperature in a status update! If I do slip up, my friends east of the Mississippi remind me that they live in igloos and count themselves lucky if the sun comes out at all. Similarly, I’ve learned not to mention my weight, because I’ve always been skinny, at least by American standards. At the risk of sounding like a Hollywood starlet, I bring it up here to illustrate my point.
While losing weight has never been an obsession for me, I’ve always been health-conscious. After many years of hovering 2-5 pounds above my goal, I decided to let it go. This year, with nothing in particular nudging me, I started tracking calories. I found out the “healthy” garlic tofu with broccoli and brown rice I’d been having for lunch has over 1300 calories (so much for not sounding like a starlet). I made better choices, upped my mileage, and dropped 19 pounds in six months. If I had made a resolution to reach a target weight, I never would’ve aimed that low.
Much to my wife’s chagrin, we don’t maintain a household budget. Our income is too unpredictable. Will she get a bonus this year despite the recession? Will her company’s stock go up or down? Will I be hired to mix a band’s new album, or just master it? Will there be a sequel to the video game I’m doing AV work on? There are too many variables beyond our control, so last year I decided against setting targets of any sort. Though our overall financial picture is still sketchy for the same reasons as everyone else, 2009 was the best year yet for my studio business.
It was also a great year for Color Theory, my musical alter-ego, again due to events beyond my control. I won big in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, won smaller at OurStage, and was nominated for Best Electronic in the 2009 OC Music Awards. I had several song placements on MTV shows after the music director found me on thesixtyone. Like I could’ve planned to be so lucky!
I’ll take motivation and direction over goals any day. Why impose targets and rules for something I supposedly want to do? There is humility and a sense of freedom in accepting that most of what happens to us is beyond our control. Not to get all Zen on you, but I’m letting go of what should be and embracing what is. Mixing and mastering other peoples’ music may keep me busy for weeks at a stretch, but I’ll find time to make my own. I’m a musician.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
..Yess….. no……Yes …….yes……..yes…….. like what ever pleases you brian……yess…. and, i find it similar,
but different.
.
.hope these few words help .
all the best. janes. x
You are right. It is freeing. Seems like most people I know are OCD A-type personalities. It’s kind of a rule-based, formulaic American Dream kinda gospel that tells us we MUST get it together. Cheers to learning to live in the “what is”
While I agree that goals aren’t necessarily needed to keep you doing things that are well-established parts of your personality (in your case running and making music), I perhaps disagree that you didn’t set any goals this year. While you may not have felt like you did, from an outsiders perspective, you came at 2009 swinging harder than you ever have. (Though arguably still going on the momentum you set up for yourself with your Depeche Mode release.) You had a huge “passive” promotional scheme for your new release that you stuck to and really made work for you. That’s a goal. A big one. You announced you were doing it to everyone, and then you did it. And it really worked.
I think the real title of this blog should be “how it feels to achieve your goals”. You worked hard this year… perhaps even more importantly, you worked smart… and you really reaped the rewards.
That’s very generous of you Mark! I certainly was more driven than ever, even though I didn’t create an explicit list of yearly goals in my trusty old .doc file like I used to. More than anything else, I think parenthood has forced me to take a step back from the personality Ian describes, though I’ve heard the OCD label applied to me more than once. I suppose putting out albums as a one-man band for 16 years qualifies us both as “control freaks.”
Haha, that’s great! Like the gyms packed with weak-willed but well-intentioned people for a month or two. I sure identify. I never make resolutions, because I know I won’t ever keep them. Kind of like a “three day monk” in that regard. You know, Japanese saying about the fellow who joins a monastery only to abandon his quest for enlightenment after three days when he finds the vows to be onerous? Hey that may not be a bad idea for a song!
I’ve now heard arguments from both sides on whether it helps or hinders to announce your goals, but not entirely convincing either way. So I don’t know about that. I’ve heard that boot-camp soldiers do better on long marches when they know how long it is and what to expect. But it is an interesting thought… just trying to do your best without setting goals, one may end up exceeding milestones that would have just barely been reached if they had been defined. Maybe in some ways goals are a convenient way of telling you when to stop trying. With resolutions people always tend to fall short, maybe too ambitious or maybe it’s too artificial. Speaking of which I really have to get back to the gym and the pool sometime.
You were pretty driven last year and you obviously still are. Perhaps it’s not about avoiding setting goals at all, as much as not formalizing them. You have always known what you want and who you see yourself as, and that will take you farther than any arbitrary deadlines you’d set yourself to meet. Your bottom line in this post says as much: “I’ll take motivation and direction over goals any day.” You don’t need specific goals, you know what your overarching ones are and you’ll achieve them, because: “I’m a musician.” So far, it seems to be going well.
Thanks Guy! I already have a song called “Monastery,” though the subject matter may be SLIGHTLY different.
Who knows? Maybe 2010 will suck and I can blame it on my lack of clear goals. At least it helps with the stress level.