Another way to look at setting creative goals
The Habitual Creator Lesson #2
When I ask someone about what goals they have for their creative career & life, I most often get a response that’s focused on an outcome:
“I want to release my own music.”
“I want to learn to sing this repertoire without defaulting into my ‘head voice’ sound.”
“I want to play gigs with my band.”
“I want to make an online course.”
“I want to get better at marketing my music.”
“I want to work more on my art.”
“I want to figure out a way to practice singing although my life is so busy.”
…and so on.
Your outcome might be a specific project, or it might be to improve your skills in a specific area related to your creative work, or it might be to increase the time you spend on your creative work.
Typically, you then get to work with the outcome in mind, and start taking action based on the goals you have set for yourself, right? Let’s say you say you want to play gigs with your band, and you set up a strategy of contacting venues, sending daily emails and making phone calls. Or you want to learn to sing a specific repertoire without defaulting into a ‘head voice’ sound, so you look up what vocal exercises will help you with your goal, and decide to start practicing those.
I’ve seen it happen to many artists I’ve coached, to many colleagues and friends, and I’ve seen it happen to myself:
There comes a day when you stop taking action according to the strategy you’ve set for yourself.
Possibly, you blame the strategy and think it wasn’t the right one. Or you blame yourself for having failed, thinking there must be something wrong with you.
But there might not be anything wrong with your strategy at all! The real reason to why you’re stopping with taking action might very well be that the identity that you’re currently embodying is not aligned with the actions you’re taking in order to reach your goal. (And that, my friend, does not mean there’s something wrong with you).
Let me explain. Your identity encompasses many aspects of you, including: your experiences, beliefs, self-image, values, interests, tastes, principles, your judgments about yourself and others, and more. Your beliefs shape your behaviour and habits too. If you believe you’re a fast learner, you probably have adopted very specific learning habits and might easily get frustrated when something takes longer than you’d like it to take. If you believe that the music industry is unfair and unwelcoming to new artists who have a small fanbase, you might have a really hard time motivating yourself to do the work it takes to book shows, or you might stop trying after getting a couple of rejections. If you believe that you have to work hard and figure it all out by yourself, you might get overwhelmed and stuck in your songwriting goals and your music will not be released.
In his book Atomic Habits1, James Clear suggests that “behaviour that is incongruent with the self will not last.” In other words, if you’re trying to accomplish a goal and a plan, focusing on what you want to achieve, but you haven’t changed who you are, it’s hard to change your habits and behaviour.
Let’s look at what that could mean for the goal: “I want to learn to sing this repertoire without defaulting into my ‘head voice’ sound.”
In your process towards your goal, you may need to access sounds that might be incongruent with the image you have of your current self. Let’s say your self-image is “I’m a polite person who doesn’t take up much space”. That might be the opposite of the image you associate with a specific sound - now, every time you’re being asked to access that sound (because it will help you with your goal), you are challenging your self-image, which feels uncomfortable. This might bring up so much resistance, that you conclude learning this repertoire and these sounds is just not for you, and give up. It might sound like a far-fetched idea, but I’ve seen versions of this happen in my work as a vocal coach more than once! “Being a polite person who doesn’t take up much space” may also sabotage your intentions to practice, because you’re too concerned about what your neighbours might think.
Building identity-based creative habits
James Clear suggests changing your identity is done by changing your habits. And I do believe he’s right - our beliefs are learned, not something we’re born with, after all. The more you repeat a specific behaviour, the more you embody the identity associated with that behaviour. I would perhaps also add some exploring of your beliefs, and work on shifting the beliefs and mindset that’s limiting you. But for now, let’s focus on the habits. Everything’s connected anyway, and by working on your habits, you’ll also end up working on your mindset!
The following assignment is inspired by chapter 2 in Atomic Habits: “How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa).” In creativity coaching, we very often examine your self-talk, or look into how you can use self-talk that’s helpful to you. That’s why I had the idea to have the artists I coach make “Artist Identity Statements” inspired by the work of James Clear, to help them in their creative goal setting & work. This way, you’re building what James Clear calls “identity-based habits”, focusing on who you wish to become.
Assignment: The Artist Identity Statement
Fill in the following statement:
“I’m the kind of [title] who [description of the kind of person you want to be]”.
You may also want to add: “…so that [the outcome you want to achieve].”
For example:
“I’m the kind of singer who learns at the pace that my voice, body, brain and energy can keep up with.”
“I’m the kind of songwriter who actively seeks guidance, community and mentoring, so that I can release my own music.”
“I’m the kind of singer who explores new sides of myself in all the voice work that I do.”
“I’m the kind of artist who always makes time for creating, no matter how busy life gets.”
Use this Artist Identity Statement to anchor yourself in your new desired identity each time you encounter challenges, or are faced with making a decision.
Please note that a statement alone cannot make your creative goals happen, you naturally have to take action too :) If you need help with any of this, my creativity coaching programs are opening for enrolment in just a couple of weeks!
What’s one thing that got clearer with this lesson & assignment?
Join the subscriber chat to share your insights & questions! I look forward hearing from you, answering your questions - and reading your Artist Identity Statements!
XO Katja
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James Clear: Atomic Habits - An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. Penguin Random House, 2018.