The Global Media Site for Entertainment.
Menu
As 2024 gets underway, the time for reflection and embarking on New Year’s resolutions is upon us. Whether our hopes and dreams for the next 12 months consist of overhauling many parts of our lives or maintaining and building on things that are already working. There are three main areas that can often benefit from a life audit.
We hear the term “self-care” so much nowadays, but don’t always understand or apply it to our busy daily lives. If we think about ourselves with the same attitude we would give to an instrument or a piece of equipment, it can be surprising to observe the ways in which we neglect to maintain or tune up as often as we need. We know that cleaning our gear, changing our strings, and PAT testing our electronics is non-negotiable and that without these regular checks, we run the risk of poor performance at best, and a breakdown at worst.
Working to assess any repairs that are needed in ourselves or in our lives can give us direction on what we need to care for – in other words, understanding what is working and what is not. Where are the loose connections, broken parts, and out-of-tune bits in our physical and emotional lives? It can help us to reflect on whether these are things we need to fix or replace, or perhaps get rid of altogether.
Motivational guru Tony Robbins describes self-care as “regularly doing things for yourself that make you feel good”, and recommends scheduling it in so that it becomes a part of your regular routine. If we make a frequent habit of testing what’s working and reflecting on what makes us feel good, we can find a reliable baseline for fixing the cracks and eliminating the glitches before they become overpowering.
Setting career goals can sometimes feel as overwhelming or conversely, as exciting as writing a symphony – a delicate interplay of notes, movements, and rhythms that shape your professional narrative. What do you want the symphony to sound like, to convey, and what would you like the order of notes to be?
As Zig Ziglar wisely observed, “A goal properly set is halfway reached”. Each career goal is a note in the symphony of your life. Just as a composer carefully selects notes, choose goals that contribute meaningfully to your career narrative, and take the lead. There may have been dissonance, and movements that are slow and sad, however ultimately, we are the maestros able to compose the next part in contrast, one note at a time.
In addition to making SMART goals, the experts at verywellmind recommend asking yourself how motivated you are, reflecting on why your goals are important to you, setting a positive tone, and focusing on the process, not the outcome.
Without clear goals and intention, the possibilities are vast – it can feel as though we are sitting with our hands in front of 88 piano keys, with any one or more of them as a viable option. By narrowing down what notes you want to play, and holding the intention of enjoying the time spent composing, our energy becomes better directed, and our time well-spent.
The first time we do something, it’s very rarely perfect or great. This is why we practice, and why we strive for our 10,000 hours to master our skills and build our muscle memory. We learn different permutations, troubleshooting, and problem-solving. Whether we are playing an instrument, working with technology, or just our bodies, the repetition of doing something well is the same.
Brian Tracy encourages consistent practice, noting that “The key to success is action.” Building confidence can be paradoxical – it takes confidence to start something new, to do something for the first time, or to try things outside of our comfort zone. By taking the leap, we build more confidence in ourselves and our abilities. By incorporating practice and repetition as we would if we were learning a new instrument, we get better, we grow more confident in ourselves, and we become less fearful of the unknown.
Buddhist Monk and mindfulness extraordinaire Thich Nhat Hanh put it best when he said: “Fearlessness is not only possible, it is the ultimate joy. When you touch non-fear, you are free”.
As we step into the new year, remember that self-care, career goal-setting, and confidence-building are the notes that form the symphony of your success. Tune up your mind, body, and spirit like you would your equipment, decide what your masterpiece will be in 2024, and work on composing it day by day.
The mission of SoundGirls.org is to inspire and empower the next generation of women in audio. Our mission is to create a supportive community for women in audio and music production, providing the tools, knowledge, and support to further their careers. SoundGirls.Org was formed in 2013 by veteran live sound engineers Karrie Keyes and Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato and operates under the Fiscal Sponsorship of The California Women’s Music Festival, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. In 2012, Karrie and Michelle participated in the “Women of Professional Concert Sound” panel at the AES Conference in San Francisco. The panel was hosted by the Women’s Audio Mission (WAM) and moderated by WAM founder Terri Winston. Terri brought together five women working in live and broadcast audio. The groundbreaking panel (which also included Jeri Palumbo, Claudia Engelhart and Deanne Franklin), provided young women and men a glimpse into life on the road, tips and advice, and a Q & A with the panelists. More importantly though, was how incredibly powerful the experience was for the panelists. We had all been in the business for 20 years or more, yet most of us had never met before that day and within minutes we bonded like long-lost sisters. We were struck by how similar our experiences, work ethics, and passions were and wondered why our paths had never crossed and how our careers would have been different had we been there to support each other through the years. Each of us are strong on our own, but together we were even stronger and a powerful force. We were empowered. Each of us had been asked hundreds of times in our careers: Are there other women doing sound? How did you get into sound? How would a young woman go about getting into sound? Through creating SoundGirls.Org, we hope to establish a place for women working in professional audio to come for support and advice, to share our success and failures, our joys and frustrations, and for empowerment and inspiration.
Read Full Profile
© 2021 TheatreArtLife. All rights reserved.
Thank you so much for reading, but you have now reached your free article limit for this month.
Our contributors are currently writing more articles for you to enjoy.
To keep reading, all you have to do is become a subscriber and then you can read unlimited articles anytime.
Your investment will help us continue to ignite connections across the globe in live entertainment and build this community for industry professionals.
