Five Successes for 1/6/10

Feel free to join my Facebook Fan Page for details on a benefit concert I'm doing with Sam Payne and Peter Breinholt for Bulgarian Orphanages!

Today's greatest successes in order of most victorious:

1.) Cleaned the toilet.  If you live with three males then you know the kind of feat that this is.

2.) Cleaned the bathroom vanity.  If you are a woman then you also know the difficulty if this task.

3.) Visited my Facebook Fan Page and discovered that it has not been updated since last June.  JUNE!  I did some housekeeping there and now invite you to join it (this is different from my regular facebook page with different content, updates, etc.)  I will be updating this page on a regular basis.

4.) Listened to songs in search of inspiration for these last few tunes I need to write for my album.

5.) Ate less cheese.

Check in tomorrow to see the Dream Board I'm creating for my goals . . .

Five Successes for 1/5/10

Today's success stories might be scraping the barrel a bit.  Sometimes I just want to tell it like it is and would rather have you know that I woke up with a Nighttime TheraFlu Hangover and felt like a moody wreck with a head cold.  But that should be all the more reason to celebrate that I actually accomplished:

• making homemade pizzas with Thatcher all morning (at his request)
• spray painting these enormous stars I got for the boys' bedrooms a while back
• registering for my Pro Tools and Recording Techniques classes this semester
• unloading and loading the dishwasher
• making an appointment to get my hair cut

Anytime I share these little successes, you are invited to share yours back with me.  It helps me feel like there are others out there who like me, sometimes feel triumph over just getting out of bed.  

Week One, Day Two: Be Unreasonable

(I set some pretty lofty goals the first year I released an album.  I believe that the very ability to be unreasonable while shaking off my fear of dreaming big helped me win a few awards that year.  Years later, my focus and goals are now  different, and more unreasonable than ever.)

It makes a lot of sense to me that when setting goals, writing them out with pen and paper could make them more meaningful than doing it on a computer.  I like this quote from Ariel Hyatt:

"Your intention manifests itself differently when it comes from a pen and not from a computer.  The act of writing it down accesses a different part of your brain and it makes a deal between your hand, your mind and your heart." 

Is this why I keep reverting back to an old fashioned planner over my iCal?  Perhaps.

Before writing down my goals, I'm going to hone in on some focus areas within my career which I can then set goals in.  Remember, my area is the music business, but yours might be sports related, family related, etc.  Why not write them down and put them on the fridge?  It's not like it could hurt anything.

My Focus Areas:

• Branding
• Marketing
• Website design
• Social Media
• PR
• Tour
• Writing songs
• Number of CDs/downloads I would like to sell
• How much $ would I like to earn?
• Film and TV placements (really excited for this area!)
• Building fan base
• Audience sizes at my shows
• Finding a manager I mesh with
• Personal health (to improve my performance)
• Mental health (staying positive)

A few things to keep in mind: the more specific you can be with your goals, the better.  If your goals are vague then your outcome will be too.  Writing down dates, describing goals in detail and visualizing them as if they are already happening are all great techniques in bringing them to life.

One contradiction I found in this chapter was that regarding focus areas, it says to "think big, be unreasonable, and don't hold yourself back."  However, when suggesting techniques for writing down goals, the book also reads: "Make them so they are realistically achievable."  Personally I like the "be unreasonable" approach.  I think if you shoot big, you're more likely to get further than if you think "realistically."  There are good things about both, but I am a free-spirited dreamy kind of gal.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a pen and some paper.

Week One. Day One: 3 %

Diving into Music Success in Nine Weeks today brought to my attention the astounding fact that only an estimated 3% of all people have their long term goals written down.  Here's an excerpt from a fascinating article by John Lloyd that I found on Ariel Hyatt's advice column, "Sound Advice:" 

What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School (a bestselling book) talks about a research study that was conducted at Harvard between 1979 and 1989:

“In 1979, the MBA graduates were asked, “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?”

Only 3 percent had clear written goals and action plans to achieve them.

Thirteen percent of the graduates had goals, but they were not in writing.

The other 84 percent had no specific goals at all.

In 1989, a decade later, the researchers again interviewed the students of that class. Surprisingly, they discovered that the 13 percent, who had goals that were not in writing, were earning on average twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all.

The truly amazing finding was that the 3 percent of students, who had written, clear goals when they left Harvard, were earning over ten times as much, on average, as the other 97 percent together.

There are many other similar recorded research studies that seem to conclude with approximately the same results - that only 3 percent of people set clear, written goals and action plans for their achievement.

These people clearly achieve far more success and happiness in their lives and careers than others. Goal setting ability is the skill that separates these top performers from the rest.”

Here are a few tips from Ariel on Goal Setting:

1.) "THIS IS A GAME; YOU CAN CHANGE THE RULES AS YOU GO."  In other words, goals are not a bining contract.  They should be used as a guide and if you need to alter them as you go, feel free.

2.) "DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP!"  Be patient.  There may be days where you mess up or get frustrated, but self criticism gets in the way accomplishing your dreams.

3.) "FIVE SUCCESSES EACH DAY."  Write down five successes that you have each day.  According to T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, writing down your successes trains your mind to focus on the positive, eliminating self criticism.

So my friends, without further ado, I'll conclude this post with my five successes for the first Monday of the Year:

1.) Got the oil changed and broken tail light fixed on my car.

2.) Made dinner early and stuck it in the crock pot.

3.) Wrote two blog posts!

4.) Opted to get my broken computer repaired instead of buying a new one.

5.) Read a story to my son's kindergarten class.

Pretty simple, I know.  But sometimes I forget about all the good things I do in a day and only see snapshots of failures.  I think I'm going to like this.  Feel free to share with me any of your small successes for today.  I would like to read those very much.  

Music Success in Nine Weeks

I've gone and done it. I've entered one of those online contests everyone else is doing and that I always find rather annoying. But please read on long enough for me to tell you that this one is different. There will be no annoying emails or requests for you to "Vote for me!!!" This contest is a nine week journey that you can tune into anytime and observe my progress.

Back in November I attended a conference for independent artists. Some of it was helpful, some not so much. There were a lot of speakers and a lot of books and CDs for sale making claims of success and increased revenue. But as I sat in a sea of musicians listening to a panel of professionals rattle off their secrets to success, one speaker in particular authentically piqued my interest. It was the way she carried herself, the helpful detail in her answers to questions and while up on the stand she gave no pretension that she was above anyone else in the room. I immediately bought Ariel Hyatt's book - the only one I purchased at the whole conference.

Now Ariel is offering a blogging contest to those up for the challenge of working their way through her book, "Music Success in Nine Weeks." The winner receives a really nice online PR package - something I could SO use for the release of my upcoming album. The timing couldn't be more perfect since I was already going to take you through the process of writing, and recording the album anyway. What's so great about this is that a lot of this journey will deal with principles that can apply to your lives as well, whether you are a stay-at-home mom, college student, writer, or gas station clerk. Who doesn't have dreams and goals they'd like to accomplish? Part of my commitment to this program is to record five successes that I have each day - not even necesessarily music related. So tune in to my first post later today all about week one: Getting Mentally Prepared. We'll talk about setting goals and focusing on the positive. This is going to rock. (and just between you and me, somebody needs to get her roots done.)

2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2010 is going to be an amazing year. I've had a lovely break and can't wait to share with you all of the up and coming adventures in music. Top Five Music Resolutions?

1. Balance my roles as wife and mother better with my music career.
2. Write and record my best album yet with gifted producers.
3. Read "Music Success in Nine Weeks" by Ariel Hyatt and blog about it weekly.
4. Get ripped (not so much about music, but good for stage presence, right?).
5. Be Queen of Pro Tools.

How about you?

Let Go

My mom and dad stopped in for a visit the other day - a special treat for me since my parents just settled down in Utah from world travels since I got married. It's been years since they've lived close by. Dad brought some old pictures along and handing them to me he said, "Thought you might want to put these on your blog." Since when did my dad give a hoot about blogging? I thought his gesture was awfully cute. We all had a good laugh, but somehow, I longed to jump inside the photographs and relive those moments.

This was our house in Madrid, Spain. I am thirteen years old and yes, I am wearing Tevas with my church dress. Yes, I am using a fitted sheet as a parachute and yes, my slip is showing. Who gives? The point is, I want to live like that girl - uninhibited and vivacious. I want to stand at the top of my world, and let go of all things cumbersome and just jump.

Carolyn Rasmus writes about this in her book, "Simplify" (which I highly recommend and have read twice.) She recounts the experience she had as a young girl when her mother bore a son. Back then no one knew much about post-partum depression and Carolyn's mother really struggled after baby Mark was born. She was told to stay in bed. So Carolyn became the primary caretaker of her baby brother. For a long time she was hurt by this baby who had not only replaced her, but whom she was now responsible for. When friends came over, Carolyn could not leave and when diapers needed to be canged, and bottles needed to be prepared, Carolyn had to be the adult. Later in her life, as a real adult, she was taking care of her old mother, bathing her. They talked about days gone by and old memories. Her mother confessed how much it hurt her that when Mark cried as a baby, he only wanted Carolyn. Carolyn was shocked. All these years she thought she was the one who had been hurt but her heart was softened to see the situation from her mother's perspective. As she scrubbed her mother's back and dried her with warm towels, tears streamed down her face. She looked up to see that her mother too was weeping. They were able to let go of feelings that had soured their relationship for years.

It is the end of a very long and trying semester of school, two finals away from letting go of so much weight. December is wasting away and I am on the brink of leaving one more year behind. My twenties are fading fast and I am left wondering, what unecessary junk am I still holding onto? It is time to pluck up the weeds that have gone unattended to by the fistfuls and chuck them to the wind.