267 Make Space for What Matters: How to pursue your musical goals while creating space for a life you love

And that's what I want you to think about as you sit down for the year, or maybe the season, and look at the things on your schedule, the commitments that you've made, both in your career and in your personal life, and ask yourself some questions.

Who am I? What are the top things I'm prioritizing this year? What do I want to make room for? And I think this is something that we need to come back to over and over again.

Before I started working on the audition that eventually led me to my current job, I needed to have a very strong why.

You can listen to this in one of my latest episode where I discuss this audition preparation process.

So my strong why came from answering some questions.

Why am I doing this? Why am I so excited to practice for this? Why am I gonna stick to it when things are difficult? Why do I want to take this audition? And this is a process that I don't think we should skip.

There's something to this idea of really understanding why you're pursuing a goal in the first place, because it's not just about choosing the goal.

When that goal is connected to something that really matters to you, you're also more likely to keep working towards it and overcome stumbling blocks.

And before we talk about how to fit everything into our schedule when our goal are set and we feel aligned with them, the first question, I think, is whether everything deserves to be there in the first place.

So here's something very practical that you can do.

Set aside an hour, maybe half hour.

You wanna make it easy to do right and hard to go wrong, as Gretchen Rubin says so well.

So make yourself your favorite beverage, sit down in your favorite spot, grab your most cushiest blanket, make yourself comfortable, make it delicious, and look at your schedule from last year and notice, just notice what you notice.

What are the things you did that you wish to bring with you into the new year? What are the things that you look at and you think, "Yes, I want more of this"? So as you look at the schedule and the different events that are in the schedule, how do you feel when you see them? What are the things that you see and your heart just sinks, and you want none of that in the new year? You can also notice where time was lost.

Not- notice certain things that you thought you had to do, but maybe you don't have to do anymore.

So look with your eyes, but notice with your heart, and take inventory of how you managed and spent your time last year, because this is important information about yourself moving forward.

Once you've done that, reflect a little bit on who you are right now.

Who do you see yourself as? And which version of you do you want to expand right now? Do you want to feel more purpose? Do you want to feel more fulfilled? Do you want to be a person who spends more time outside? Do you wanna be a person who's joyful with their family? Do you wanna be someone who's energetic? And think about it not just in terms of what you do.

Think about it in terms of who you are.

What are the things that you would do that would help you be more of this person? Maybe it's getting more sleep.

Maybe it's having more time to cook healthy meals.

If you wanna be more joyful, what are the things that make you more joyful? Do you need to meditate? Do you need to plan more dates with friends? Plan activities with your family? In your career, what kind of colleague do you wanna be? What kind of work do you see yourself doing? Where do you see yourself working? Because that's gonna start showing you where you want to spend your energy.

Then look at your goals.

The year that I was preparing for my audition, audition preparation was something I wanted to make time for, so there were certain things that I needed to shift down on the list of priorities.

Last year, I was really focusing on getting tenure.

And that's what I want you to think about as you sit down for the year, or maybe the season, and look at the things on your schedule, the commitments that you've made, both in your career and in your personal life, and ask yourself some questions.

Who am I? What are the top things I'm prioritizing this year? What do I want to make room for? And I think this is something that we need to come back to over and over again.

Before I started working on the audition that eventually led me to my current job, I needed to have a very strong why.

You can listen to this in one of my latest episode where I discuss this audition preparation process.

So my strong why came from answering some questions.

Why am I doing this? Why am I so excited to practice for this? Why am I gonna stick to it when things are difficult? Why do I want to take this audition? And this is a process that I don't think we should skip.

There's something to this idea of really understanding why you're pursuing a goal in the first place, because it's not just about choosing the goal.

When that goal is connected to something that really matters to you, you're also more likely to keep working towards it and overcome stumbling blocks.

And before we talk about how to fit everything into our schedule when our goal are set and we feel aligned with them, the first question, I think, is whether everything deserves to be there in the first place.

So here's something very practical that you can do.

Set aside an hour, maybe half hour.

You wanna make it easy to do right and hard to go wrong, as Gretchen Rubin says so well.

So make yourself your favorite beverage, sit down in your favorite spot, grab your most cushiest blanket, make yourself comfortable, make it delicious, and look at your schedule from last year and notice, just notice what you notice.

What are the things you did that you wish to bring with you into the new year? What are the things that you look at and you think, "Yes, I want more of this"? So as you look at the schedule and the different events that are in the schedule, how do you feel when you see them? What are the things that you see and your heart just sinks, and you want none of that in the new year? You can also notice where time was lost.

Not- notice certain things that you thought you had to do, but maybe you don't have to do anymore.

So look with your eyes, but notice with your heart, and take inventory of how you managed and spent your time last year, because this is important information about yourself moving forward.

Once you've done that, reflect a little bit on who you are right now.

Who do you see yourself as? And which version of you do you want to expand right now? Do you want to feel more purpose? Do you want to feel more fulfilled? Do you want to be a person who spends more time outside? Do you wanna be a person who's joyful with their family? Do you wanna be someone who's energetic? And think about it not just in terms of what you do.

Think about it in terms of who you are.

What are the things that you would do that would help you be more of this person? Maybe it's getting more sleep.

Maybe it's having more time to cook healthy meals.

If you wanna be more joyful, what are the things that make you more joyful? Do you need to meditate? Do you need to plan more dates with friends? Plan activities with your family? In your career, what kind of colleague do you wanna be? What kind of work do you see yourself doing? Where do you see yourself working? Because that's gonna start showing you where you want to spend your energy.

Then look at your goals.

The year that I was preparing for my audition, audition preparation was something I wanted to make time for, so there were certain things that I needed to shift down on the list of priorities.

Last year, I was really focusing on getting tenure.