For the last 4 years I have used the week after Christmas to reflect and engage with my goals using the YearCompass booklet (which is free, by the way!). To work through the YearCompass you need to create time and space to reflect and remember, then dream and imagine. It’s an amazing way to keep yourself accountable to your desires.

What I love most about this ritual is the record. Looking back, goals that felt BIG and SCARY were often met without fanfare and turned into my new normal. It is gratifying to realize I met the goals, but also an important reminder of how the mind works. So many times the things that are big and scary are big and scary because we decide they are.

The YearCompass asks you to choose a word that will guide you through your year. Mine is COLLABORATION. At first I chose the word FAILURE with the personal understanding that failure was a sign of trying. But more and more I realized the folly in that. Often times what happens when you really try, is you get what you want. So instead I went with something I am learning more and more: I shine when I work with others. The music business can be really lonely. Collaborations keep me motivated, accountable, and open me up to new networks of people. I have some amazing collaborations lined up this year that I’m really excited about. And guess what? Each one of my students is a collaborator.

What’s yours?

Here are my words from the last 3 years. Sometimes I lived those words, and other times I learned that the word I needed was not the word I chose for myself:

AUDACITY

FLOW

SHOW