Having a supportive peer, friend or group to be accountable to can also help. A natural friendly rivalry can be a great motivator, too.

Bonus:

The "achievable and realistic" part of this is vital. Don't attempt to uproot your entire routine in one go unless you have the motivation of The Buddha himself. Change one thing at a time till it sticks.

Take those goals that are outside of your direct control and see them as dreams instead.

If you keep your goals and resolutions to *achievable*, *realistic* actions that you can enact yourself, you're far less likely to let yourself down & more likely to reach your dreams faster

So, what is in your control?

- How you allocate your time
- The kind of work you want to output
- What skills you try to improve
- How you want to engage with your audience or clientbase
- Who you reach out to, connect and network with
Etc

When I was starting out, I set my goal to get my first release with a J-Pop group that year.

But I wasn't the person making the decisions of which songs get chosen.

I didn't get that release on my first year and didn't achieve that goal. But it wasn't my fault- it just wasn't in my control.

For example, a common (and very understandable) goal I see a lot is "earn a consistent income per month from my art"

Problem is, you aren't in control of that. Your potential clients are. They're the ones who decide to pay you.

Woke up this morning thinking of all the songs I should've put in my top 5, "A Case of You" Joni Mitchell, "The Once and Future Carpenter" The Avett Brothers, "Dance Me To The End of Love" Leonard Cohen so many gorgeous lyrics I couldn't think of yesterday 🥲

Sad that I couldn't get a Kendrick lyric in my Top 5, but as a bonus have:

"I just win again and win again
Like Wimbledon, I serve" from DNA, Kendrick Lamar

1) Vincent, Don McLean

"Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of China blue"

Every verse of this song is stunning, but this is my favourite. Again, huge fan of alliteration and how beautifully emotive the metaphors are.

Gentle on my Mind, John Hartford [cont.]

"Through cupped hands
'Round the tin can, I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
That you're waiting from the back roads by the rivers of my memories
Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind"

Just stunning poetry. The alliteration is a highlight for me.

2) Gentle on my Mind, John Hartford

"I dip my cup of soup back
From a gurglin' cracklin' calderon in some train yard
My beard, a roughening' coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low across my face..."

[Cont.]

Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield

Songs about writing songs just hit different sometimes lmao. And I love the unconventional rhyming patterns and, at times, lack of rhyme here. But it all flows so well and has such strong visual language.

3) Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield

"Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin"

4) Stupid, Lizzy McApline

"You know me so well
Even if you don't know my favorite type of cereal"

A simple, quirky and beautifully innocent lyric. This line has always stuck with me for it's specificity and what it says about connecting with someone deeply in short space of time.

Uncomfortably Slow, Newton Faulkner [cont.]

"So, don't take my photograph
'Cause I don't wanna know
How it looks to feel like this
As cars and people pass
It feels like standing still but I know
I'm just moving uncomfortably slow"

A song that made me feel seen as a neurodivergent young adult

5) Uncomfortably Slow, Newton Faulkner

"Some thing's gotta change
I know I'm lucky in a lot of ways
So why do I want more than what I have?

Brace myself to hear the lies
I wonder if they know that I don't get the jokes
But I just need to laugh
[cont.]

Top 5 alcoholic beverages 🥂🍻