So last weekend I shared that I was feeling a bit convicted about keeping certain dreams of mine safely tucked into the future…and that to deal with that issue, I was going to set some specific goals for myself for 2011, and come up with a focused plan to meet those goals. For anyone who’s interested, here’s (some of) what I came up with. 🙂
Since much of my unfulfilled desire is in the area of music, I felt like I wanted to set two particular (and challenging) goals for this area:
- Be playing regular gigs around town by the end of the year.
- Record and release an instrumental album.
Surprisingly, the second goal is probably going to be easier to attain than the first, simply because I have the means of doing a simple recording myself, at home, without raising a huge amount of cash; and if I put it up for sale as download only, I can also spare the expense of printing CDs. This goal is primary to explore my options, and to get my creative juices flowing again.
The first goal is a bit more scary, and is going to take a lot more work than just making a few phone calls. For one thing, I have almost NO repertoire for playing gigs outside of a church setting. All I’ve written for nearly 20 years is worship stuff, and if I do this, I want to write my own material, not lean on cover tunes. So I’m going to have to devote some time and creative space to serious songwriting again. I’m going to have to find a practice space, because the apartment won’t cut it–and neither will the coffee shop. 🙂 I’m going to have to actually talk to my local music contacts and explain to them how a 40-something guy is going to start gigging for the first time, and how do I book venues? I’m also leaving options open to either join or start a band–I’m flexible with that, as long as I’m playing out regularly by the end of this year. That should at least let me know if this is a direction I want to go for the long term.
As for the mission part of it…well, if you’ve read this blog much, you’ll know that the mission part of it will pretty much take place as we go–through the interactions with people along the way. Interwoven into the fabric. My chance to really try and put into practice some of the things I’ve been philosophizing and platitude-ing about on this here blog for the past few years. I’ll let you know more about what that looks like as we go.
I’ve set a couple of other goals as well, but these two were by far the most interesting. 🙂 Also, I broke these goals down into some specific steps on a timeline, so they don’t just sit there as a vague cloud of hope, like they always have before. 🙂
Since the last two sentences ended with a smiley face, here’s a third one just to round it out. 🙂
I like what this process is doing for my outlook. It’s putting specific things in my path to look forward to (or be afraid of?) this year. I feel more ready for 2011.
I promise future blog posts will be on more interesting topics than what-I-did-over-Christmas-break. For now, thanks for indulging me.
Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo.
I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.
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Be playing regular gigs around town by the end of the year.
Record and release an instrumental album.
Nice. I'm also a fan of "mental inventory" at the end of the year, and setting goals. If I were to follow on your inspiration, restringing the old 12-string would probably be the place to start. Best of luck on those!