New Year resolution! How do you set up new year goal?

Happy New Year!

It is the beginning of the year, everyone is back to work or school after the new year. We always hope to have a fresh and good start. What about setting up goals? It is a good time to set up goals in the new year and we have a whole year to accomplish our goal. But where to start?

As a teacher, I usually set up goals for my students in September, because it is the school year, however, it is still not late to start in the new year.

Have you heard of SMART goals?

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Attainable

R - Relevant

T - Time-based

We need to be SPECIFIC on the goal. Know exactly what you want. It could be to finish a book or to master a piece or to join the examination.

The goal must be MEASURABLE. Keep track of your progress towards your goal. Usually that's what our notebook is used for during our lessons, so remember to bring that with you at all time to the lesson and review the notebook during your practices. For younger students, it is expected that parents would read the notebook as a communication between teacher and parents and to translate to the student what needs to be done after each class.

The goal must also be ATTAINABLE. Setting up a goal that is not realistic would just cause discouragement and negative effect.

The goal must be RELEVANT. You need to understand what you are setting up for and must relate to what you want to accomplish.

We need to set up a Timeline, as the goal must be TIME-BASED. We would want to revisit when time is up. The goal cannot be forever and you won't see the end of the tunnel.

The goal can be small or big. Why don't we start with small goal like "I would master the fingering in 2 weeks"? then move toward to a bigger goal like "this piece will be ready for recital in May".

The most important thing is to write down your goals. Best is to post it to a place where you can see conveniently.

Good luck on setting up your goals in piano learning and feel free to share your goals with me.

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