“Goals are the fuel in
the furnace of achievement.” - Brian Tracy.
“The trouble with not
having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and
never score.” – Bill Copeland
Setting goals is important with just about everything that
you do in life!
Goals provide us with a clear idea about what we want to
achieve, and where we see ourselves down the road. Goals drive us forward, keep
us focused and committed, help us develop a sense of accountability, and above
all, help us achieve our true potential and maybe even go beyond that.
Setting goals is the first step towards successful goal
achievement, as it gives us a path towards how we can go about achieving our
goals and get to our destination.
People who do not set goals ultimately live life on a
meandering, day-to-day basis, which is precisely why they never achieve
anything of meaning or substance in their life. Their lives are pretty much the
same even 5 or 10 years down the road!
Setting goals is hence also of the utmost importance for
guitar players – regardless of whether you’re an amateur/beginner guitar
player, or a pro. Setting goals allows you to be the kind of musician you want
to, or you aspire to be, and both short-term and long-term achievables are
essential to your success as a guitar player.
Having said that, setting goals as a beginner/novice/amateur
guitar player is particularly important. The best way for guitar players to
make progress with the guitar is for them to know where they are going, and for
them to have a set of tangible ‘achievables’, aka. goals.
How to Set Goals
As a beginner guitar player, it can be quite the task when
it comes to setting goals. From what I’ve seen, beginner guitar players can
have a tough time identifying and setting tangible goals – especially since
they may feel like they’re unqualified to create these goal themselves. And
even if they are able to do so, their goals are often too unrealistic or simply
unachievable. That’s where a good teacher and mentorship can really help!
A good teacher work with his students to not only help them
achieve their goals, but also set them. In fact, the mark of a good guitar
instructor/teacher is that this will be one of the first things he asks his
students!
Setting guitar-playing and/or guitar-learning goals is usually
a two-step process: the first of which is setting long terms goal (or goals,
yes you can have multiple long-term goals!), and then breaking things down into
smaller, short-term goals which will help achieve the long-term goal(s).
Setting Long-Term Goals
Long term goal can also be referred to as ‘big-picture’
goal!
Long-term goal – or ‘goals’ – provide your practice and
playing sessions with structure and purpose. From a guitar-player’s
perspective, these goals determine (a) why they started to play the guitar, (b)
what kind of artists they see themselves become, and (c) what their aspirations
are.
For instance ask yourself this: where do you see yourself as
a guitar player down the road, say 1 or 2 years from now? What kind of an
artist would you want to be? Who do you want to play like?
Setting Short Term Goals
In order to achieve your long term goal/goals, you need to
break it down into smaller chunks – or short-term goals, which essentially
refer to a smaller set of achievables. Think of these as day-to-day goals (more
on this below), weekly or monthly goals that you would want to achieve with
your daily practice sessions.
Short-term guitar-playing goals are stepping stones towards achieving
your ultimate long-term goals. These should therefore help you accomplish
whatever long term goals you set for yourself.
Setting Daily Goals
These are perhaps the most important set of goals for you, and
should allow you to achieve your short-term as well as long-term goals.
Daily or day-to-day goals provide you with direction as far
as daily-practice sessions are concerned. These form the crux of your daily
practice sessions. For instance these could be things such learning or
mastering a new skills, as improving your technique or working on improving a
skill, etc.
Daily goals are the easiest to measure as well, since you
can virtually see what you’re learning and what you’re improving upon.
Goals Need to be Realistic
After all’s said and done, the important thing to know about
goal-setting is that your goals need to be realistic, reachable and achievable.
Setting the bar high is a good practice, but it should still remain realistic.
Goals Should be Measured
One of the best things about goals and milestones is that
they provide you with a yardstick to measure your progress. At the end of the
month or the year, for example, look back to see how far you’ve come since you
started off, and compare where you are today to where you were an year back,
for instance.
Keep measuring your progress, and continuously refine your
goals.
Zig Ziglar’s 7 Steps to Goal Setting
Here’s
an excellent article on goal setting, Ziglar’s 7-steps to setting goals,
courtesy LearningGuitarNow, that should be of immense help to guitar players
without any mentorship and struggling with setting goals for themselves. Definitely
worth a read!
Concluding Thoughts
Measuring your progress will also provide you with a great
way of motivating yourself (such as when you see how far you’ve come), and take
pride in your progress and accomplishments. Use it as a source of inspiration
for yourself.
The additional focus will make your practice sessions less
frustrating as well!
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