Goal Setting for Singers: Set Yourself Up for Success
Happy New Year! With January finally here (or half over now), many of us singers are looking ahead to prepare for a new year of opportunities. This can be a daunting task whether you have a full or empty calendar. You may be asking: How do I get all of this done? How can I support myself this year? How do I learn all this music?
It is tempting to come at this with a “new years resolution” mindset. That's what we do in January, right? I'd like to challenge this approach and guide you toward a better method for getting things done this year. A big problem with New Year's Resolutions are that they are typically vague promises. You have most likely set, and then forgotten about, many of these resolutions over the years. Two of the biggest reasons we fail at these are:
Setting Vague Goals: Saying things like “This year I will learn new opera roles” doesn’t give you specific parameters to work with. Instead, set a goal akin to “I will learn Violetta by August”. It has a specific task and an end date.
Going too big: Like the previous example, something like “This year I will practice 7 days a week” might be overzealous and unrealistic. Have you ever done this before? Is this a choice that works for your lifestyle? A more realistic goal would be to assess the number of hours per week you usually practice and add 1-2 hours to that. There is an argument for setting your expectations a bit lower and exceeding them, rather than setting high expectations and feeling like you failed if you don’t meet them.
If either of the above situations is an experience you’ve had, then welcome to the club. We have all been there, all felt the feeling of failure when we realize we didn’t accomplish our resolutions. Let’s change that by setting goals, not resolutions. Goals are actionable achievements rather than vague promises to change. While failure can still happen even with good goal setting you will likely experience more success overall.
Let’s walk through a few tasks to help you set attainable and realistic goals. You can find a downloadable worksheet at the bottom of this post to work through while you read.
1. Be Reflective
Reflect on the previous year. What went well? What didn’t go as you planned? Use the answers to those questions to set realistic goals. Let’s use the practicing example above. Maybe you only averaged 5 hours of practicing a week. Reflect on your experience: Did you feel your practice habits were due to lack of discipline or a busy schedule? Let’s move on to step 2.
2. Be Realistic and set some goals
If your answer was “lack of discipline” then adding an hour or two would be a realistic and attainable goal for you.
If your answer was “busy schedule”, take a look to see how adding time might affect you. Will it cause you to eat into personal time? Will it mean exhausting yourself? Instead, a better goal may be learning to use your 5 hours of practice more wisely to improve your practice efficiency. When it comes to practice, I will quote my sister in law, a personal trainer: “Consistent effort is better than sporadic 100% effort”. More on that in a later post.
Example Goals:
Here are some of my personal goals as an example of step 2.
Bring in 3 more private students
Finalize audition packages for upcoming applications
Write 2 blog posts
Perform a recital of my favorite pieces
Increase teaching load to 20 hours a week
3. Set your priorities
Using the specific goals you listed above, rank them based on when you want or need to accomplish a specific goal. I like to put my goals in 4 categories:
1 month - Ex. Write 2 blog posts and Finalize audition packages
3 months - Ex. Bring in 3 more private students
6 months - Ex. Perform a recital of my favorite pieces
12 months - Ex. Increase teaching load to 20 hours a week
If you prefer to use fewer categories, pick the ones that feel best for you! You may even prefer a shorter timeline. I tend to have 3-4 goals per category.
4. Set yourself up for success
Check in with the progress of your goals once a month by setting an “Admin” meeting for yourself. This is typically time you would spend accomplishing any administrative duties, like taxes or scheduling, but is a wonderful time for reflection. Do you feel you are progressing toward the goals you set in the time frame you expected? If not, reflect on what may have caused a setback and assess whether you need to edit or change the goal. It is 100% ok to adjust and may help you be more successful. I repeat: It is ok to change your goals*. You may realize that a certain goal you set is not viable with your lifestyle or the time frame you gave it.
*A suggestion: don't make these changes as a knee jerk reaction to feeling failure. Instead, use the need for an adjustment to consider why the change needs to happen in the first place.
Using this post as a guide, walk through these steps using the downloadable pdf below. By doing so, you will hopefully break the trend of failed new year's resolutions and instead learn to set goals that set you up for success. I wish you the best of luck as you work toward embracing your real world voice this year.
Are you feeling a bit stuck, or don't know where to start? Reach out! I'd love to help guide you. You can send me a message here or schedule a session directly on my Calendly.
Happy singing!
Need help putting these steps into action?
Meet the Author
Jennifer Burks is a professional voice teacher and soprano with over 17 years of formal training and degrees in Vocal Performance from the University of Arkansas and Vocal Pedagogy from New England Conservatory of Music (NEC). She is an active performer and has won prestigious vocal competitions such as the 2022 Rhode Island Civic Chorale. Beyond her studio, Jennifer is an active member of NATS, PAVA, and The Voice Foundation and is the incoming Auditions Chair of the New England Chapter of NATS. In her free time, she enjoys running, reading, sailing, and cherishing every musical moment.
