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How to determine goals

 When we play an instrument, whether it is professionally or not, we need to have goals in order to know what we are working and practicing towards. But sometimes it can be difficult to figure out what the goal is and how to get there. So here I give my ideas how to determine a long-term goal and how to determine the short-term goals that can help you get to your long-term goal.


Long-term goal

In order to determine what your long-term goal is, you need to think about the future and imagine yourself in different situations. Do you want to be orchestra musician? Or do you want to teach? Or something completely different? No matter where you want to see yourself in the future, it is important that it is something you feel exited about. If you don’t feel exited when you thing about yourself as a soloist as an example, then that will not motivate you and will not be your goal. Maybe in time you will change your goal, but it is important you feel excitement about imagining yourself in that situation. When you know what your goal is, then you can think about it more specifically. It is very beneficial if you make your goal as precise as possible, and it needs to be something you feel is realistic. If your goal meets these requirements it can motivate you a lot in your practice, and in different situations you might see opportunities that can help you reach your goal. 

 

Short-term goals

When you have determined your long-term goal, you already have great motivation. But the long-term goal is far in the future and it can be overwhelming to see how you can reach that goal and it can be hard to keep the motivation when you still feel that there is a long way towards the goal. Therefore, it is a good idea to have short-term goals, that can help you keep motivated. Every time a short-term goal is reached, you will feel accomplished and you will keep moving closer to your long-term goal. A short-term goal can vary in length, it can be a goal for the next year, the next week, or even just the next practice session. When you determine what these short-term goals should be, it is important that you keep in mind that it needs to help you get closer to your long-term goal. If your long-term goal is that you want to be a soloist, then a short-term goal could be that you will arrange a recital and improve your soloistic skills in a concert situation. This short-term goal also needs even more short-term goals. These goals could be that you want to improve intonation in 2nd octave, learn a specific piece, or other things you need to improve in order to reach your shot-term goal. It is important always to have goals that you are close to reaching. In that way you keep yourself motivated and you keep improving yourself so you can eventually reach your long-term goal. 

 

Practice session goals

It is important to have goals for the near future and further future, but you also need a goal with each of your practice sessions. If you have a goal for you practice session, you will have a more efficient session. You determine these practice session goals by thinking about your playing and what you need to improve. When you know what you need to improve you can make a goal with that in mind. Most things about your playing you can’t change in one practice session, so don’t make a goal that you want to learn a whole piece in one session. Instead you can choose a part of the piece to focuse on. This way your goal is realistic and you feel accomplished when you evaluate your practice. When you have a goal for your practice you are also more focused and over time you will notice that your playing improves faster than before setting goals for each practice session.

 

Changing goals

When you determine a goal (both long-term and short-term) you sometimes want to change goal. This can happen when you are working towards one goal and you start to realize that it is not exactly what you want to do or you find out something else is more interesting to you. If this happens you need to be flexible and adjust your goals so you keep yourself motivated and working towards a goal that you actually really want to reach. Another reason to change a goal can be when you reach your goal. When you reach your goal you naturally feel great for a while, but it is important that you determine a new goal for yourself. If you don’t determine a new goal, you will start not to improve and you might feel that you are stuck where you are. To avoid this, you need to think about new goals for yourself so you are constantly reaching for something more and interesting. This way you will keep improving and you will reach higher than you initially thought was even possible for you. 

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