Goals. Missed deadlines. Disappointment. Downward spiral.

As a self-employed musician, I have always had to be goal oriented in order to accomplish anything. But I have also learned (mostly) that when a goal is not reached by the intended deadline, it doesn’t indicate failure. It means your deadline was unrealistic, or life got in the way, and you find the world did not end… And often when looking at why the goal was not reached, there were many other accomplishments that you may have to your credit.  Okay, these are personal goals and deadlines, so not the same as when you work for a company and there are hard deadlines that could mean your job if missed.

But what I realized was that I am still under the presumption that I have failed if I miss an arbitrary deadline I’ve set rather than say “let’s just move that date to next week…”  Case in point: this blog was supposed to be weekly on Friday, but the last two Friday’s were missed entirely, and several previous Friday blogs were written and posted on Saturday… So, I sit here this morning reviewing the past few weeks’ accomplishments, and gradually spiraling back up to a more realistic point of view.

I’ve been in a course learning about Social Media, (click on “LinkTree” at the right to see my social media links) and have posted:

A reel and a post on Instagram

A post on Twitter

A post on Linked In

And my usual posts in Facebook

And my time has been filled with:

Rehearsing with Gaelic Muses for our performances (on August 28^th at Lilly Mac’s and the one coming up on Sunday at the Pleasanton Scottish Games).

Laying out and editing a Song & Tune Book for Gaelic Muses that we can sell to fans.

Preparing and teaching a workshop for Harpers Hall.

Leading a rehearsal for the Harpers Hall Ensemble for our performances tomorrow at the Pleasanton Scottish Games.

Preparing and teaching my 2-hour online workshops each Saturday in August.

Learning to use Convert Kit (an email list program) to create product links so people can sign up for my workshops using a credit card online.

Updating my website so that there is a music player integrated on my CD pages.

Editing and formatting for publication a new harp arrangement by Kim Robinson.

Preparing my workshop handouts for the Songwriting course I'll be teaching in September. (Interested? Go to https://tinyurl.com/VerleneSongwriting for information on how to register!)

Hmm… I guess I did a lot after all.