I often say to the musicians at school that there's no rest for the talented and I always feel a bit guilty giving them a new piece to learn for a solo, straight after they've finished an exam or a whole new set of songs to learn for a church service straight after a concert. Wouldn't it be nice sometimes to just sit back and bask in the glory of the last triumph before moving onto the next?
That's not how our world works any more. As soon as you achieve something there is always someone waiting to set the next target. Goal setting is meant to be very good for our mental health. It's meant to be good for us to know where we are aiming. As teachers we give children, not only goals but each individual step they need to take to get there. We believe that this is what children need to be successful. I worry, though, that if the success isn't given time to sink in then everything can feel like failure.
If you read my last blog then you will know that it's been a whirlwind of a week for me. Someone recognised that something I do is successful and forced me to celebrate that. It wasn't a goal I was set or an award I worked for but merely a recognition. It's not something that I particularly need to (or have time to) bask in as I have several concerts and performances coming up (9 before Christmas) that are going to take my attention. However, I am increasingly feeling a pressure to set the next goal. People ask me, "What's next then?"or "where can you go from here?" They say, "Well, it will look good on your CV," which worries me because you only need a CV if you have to get a new job and I was really hoping to stay in this one, as I quite like it.
The Long Suffering Husband dreads his annual appraisal at work because his own goal is to carry on doing his job as well as he can until he can retire and apparently you are not allowed to write that on the form. I don't understand this attitude. Our society needs people who are happy in their work, who are happy to do the job they do to the best of their ability. We need road sweepers who like sweeping, nurses who want to nurse rather than diagnose or perform surgery and teachers who want to teach rather than manage.
So my next goal is going to be to continue to enjoy doing what I'm doing and to carry on doing it well. I'm going to carry on being flexible, not setting rigid goals but instead taking the opportunities that present themselves. Although, I'm sure there will be a target set on my annual appraisal that I may just ignore, like I did last year's. Whoops! I probably shouldn't have confessed to not achieving my targets from my last appraisal. Take that glass trophy back at once!
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