How Purpose Fuels Progress: The Map You've Been Missing - PHH 238

Most of us aren't very good at teaching ourselves. Sure, yeah, we can follow directions, right? Give me a YouTube video and I'll follow it. But realistically and objectively, seeing where we are is really very hard. When we don't have a realistic view of what we're doing just because we don't have the expertise to see it objectively, then it's really hard to see where we're going.

Welcome to the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. I'm Ann Sullivan, a harpist on a mission to empower every harpist to experience more harp happiness. Over my decades long harp journey, I've had lots of successes and more than a few failures. And I know firsthand what it's like to feel that plan. Playing the harp the way you want may not be possible for you now. I play and teach all over the world, and I know what most harpists are never taught the secrets to gaining the skills and confidence you need to play the harp with beauty, freedom and joy. That's what the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast is all about. Showing you simple steps to help you play the music you want the way you want. If you're an experienced harpist looking for that next level, or a harp newbie anxious to avoid the pitfalls, or a harpist who just wants more fulfillment and a little encouragement, you're in the right place, my friend. So let's get started.

First, I want to let you in on something special. I think the most important thing you can do for your harp playing is to develop the habits that lead to success. Whatever that looks like for you. All of us want to learn how to play the harp beautifully, how to play with confidence and enjoy making music. And if you really want to learn those things, videos are great. But live learning is essential. You need to be able to ask questions and get answers. You can't do that with just a video, which is what makes the Miharp Mastery community so special. My Harp Mastery membership is for those who really want an online experience that lets them learn at their own pace and learn what they want and be able to learn live from expert coaches every single week. Plus, you get to connect with other harpists in the community who have the same desires for their playing. This is not only a powerful learning platform, but it's also the most generous community of harpists and anywhere on the planet. They're harpists with a positive outlook, a growth mindset, and a spirit of support for their fellow harpists on the journey with them. We're ready for you. Join us. Just go to harpmastery.com join now that's harpmastery.com join now welcome to the show. My first ocean cruise was a cruise from New York City to Bermuda. I'd never been on a big ocean liner before, and although I've done a couple other ocean cruises since then, I'm not really a fan. I love exploring, and there's only so much exploring you can do on a ship in the middle of the ocean. But on this first cruise, I did love the feeling of being in the middle of the vastness of the ocean with nothing but water all around. That feeling of not having any landmarks literally was a little exhilarating and more than a little awe inspiring. Naturally, I wasn't really frightened. I assumed, logically and correctly, that the captain and crew knew where we were heading and how to get there. I myself wouldn't have had a clue, but I never doubted that I could rely on them to get me safely to Bermuda and back. Now, nautical navigation is a mystery to me, and so I was impressed by the notion that all the power and the energy of the ship would have been useless if the captain hadn't set a direction and followed that direction with purpose. And that ties in with what I want to talk about with you today. The power of purpose, our energy, our passion for playing the harp is useless without a purpose. As I see it, purpose has two important ingredients. One is directional. When we have a goal we want to accomplish, we need to have a clear idea of how to get from here to there. This gives our practice a purpose every day. But purpose also encompasses meaning, specifically what our harp journey means to us. Without that meaning, our goals will not be as personally compelling and our progress will not be as swift. This is about our passion for playing the harp. Not passion in a dramatic way, but simply our deeply felt conviction that we love playing the harp. Today I'd like to help you consider your passion and your purpose and how you can align them to make progress faster and to make both the process and and the results more easily achievable and more deeply fulfilling. Real progress in our playing comes from the alignment of our energies and passion. That's the ship in my example, with a direction and of course, the courage to pursue it. So if you're feeling ready to be a little courageous with me, let's get started. Just a very quick word before we start. This topic about passion and about purpose and about progress is such a big one. There's a lot to it, and I know you're going to want to explore more than we can cover just in this podcast episode. So I've put a couple of resources in the show notes for you and I'll talk about those a little bit later. I just want to be sure that you know that we'll talk about them because I want to dive into our topic right away. So let's do that and we'll explore those resources in just a little bit. And with this topic, where we start is important because it starts with you, with me, with each one of us. Our harp journeys are so individual, but they're all fueled by passion. And as I said earlier, it's not about dramatic passion. It's just about the need that we have that space within us, that harp playing fills, that it's there to satisfy that is that it's that longing part of us, that part of us that needs to play the harp. It's why you started. It's your most meaningful goal. It's one of those things. So don't get disturbed by the word passion and think you have to be very emotional about it. You don't. But there's a reason. There's a reason that's inner. That's why you started playing the harp. This was a mystery to me and I truly don't remember a time when I wasn't playing the harp or didn't want to play the harp. You might have heard me talk about this before. I was doing my college studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, a world class music conservatory. And things weren't going all that easily for me. I was struggling a little bit and I remember talking to my mother when I went home for a visit saying, I don't even know why I'm doing this. And she told me that I probably didn't know why I was doing it. And she said, well, here's what got you started.

She told me that I had heard the harp on the radio when I was 2 and asked what it was and said that was what I wanted to do. They started me on piano lessons when I was 4 and told me if I still wanted to play the harp when I was 8, then I could start then. And I did, and the rest is history. But. But that was so important to me. I needed to know that story. I mean, I knew that I needed to play the harp, but I didn't know that it was that early on that I felt that connection to the harp. And what was particularly meaningful about it to me was that it wasn't that I'd seen some pretty lady in a beautiful dress playing the harp. It was the sound of the harp that pulled me in. Not that a pretty lady playing the harp wouldn't have been a meaningful connection, but that sound was what pulled me in. And knowing that made such a difference for me at the time because it reconnected me, it reassured me, it reinvigorated me and connected me with what was so important to me about playing the harp. And that's the kind of passion that I'm talking about. It's that connection. It's that why, why are you doing this? And it's worth taking some time to revisit that, to just reflect. Maybe you have a harp story that's very clear. Maybe you know exactly why you're doing this. You don't have to have to think and struggle the way I did. Maybe you've written your harp story down and you can go back and reread it periodically and say, yeah, that's right, that's why I'm doing this. If you haven't written your story down, be a great idea to think about it and to say, yeah, this is why I love playing the harp. This is what is important about it to me. And maybe what's important to you is just that this is the way you want to express yourself musically. Or maybe this is something that you want to be able to share with other people. Or maybe this is just something that connects deep in you. You don't have to understand all the reasons. You just want to acknowledge. Is a good word, I think, to acknowledge that connection. Because without refreshing that connection from time to time, your playing is going to stall. We need this. This is the fuel. This is like the ship on the ocean. This is what's going to carry us from where we are to where we're going. We need that energy, that motivation, if you will, that inspiration, perhaps. So that's where this all starts. And when you can acknowledge where you're starting, it's much easier to think about the journey. So that's step one. So if your passion is the ship, your purpose is that path that the ship is following to get you where you want to go. Purpose is a direction. It's a path. It's actually your reason to continue because it's what you want to do. Just having passion for this, just wanting to play the harp is not enough. And you know that, because passion is not playing the harp unless it's tied to action, which is, of course, where our practice comes in. In and our playing. Those are the actions that are the natural result of our passion. But when we Have a purpose for our playing, then.

That allows us to channel our energy into a single direction. It's what keeps us from going in circles. It's what gives us the ability to accomplish.

And it's much more than just setting goals. I mean, you can set goals and I'm a firm believer in setting goals. But without an actual purpose, without a reason for doing this, setting goals can kind of be sort of weak. What can happen is you set a goal saying, okay, I'm going to finish this piece. This is the piece I want to learn and play. And that can be very purpose filled. It could be a purpose, but it could just be something that you're doing to give your practice a focus without being really meaningful in some way to you. Once again, this doesn't have to be deep meaning.

Search for the meaning of life kind of meaning. Doesn't have to be that. It just has to be a direction that excites you, a direction that you choose to follow. You can change your direction. It's not like you are set in this one path forever. But you have to have a direction because otherwise you will just go around in circles or you'll just kind of go this way and kind of this way and kind of this way. Purpose keeps you motivated enough. Sometimes it's not a lot, but it's should be just enough. It keeps you motivated enough to do the work when it gets challenging. We know that learning pieces of music and playing them, it's hard work. We know that. And nobody loves to struggle with music. But some degree of struggle is part of this musical pursuit. Every job, every pursuit, right. Every pursuit has that challenging aspect. Whether it's cleaning the house, which can make you feel really good. But yeah, you have to scrub the toilets. There are those things that you just don't want to do, but they're necessary. And it's our sense of purpose that gives us the energy we need to do it. And by the way, I love the word pursuit for this because it's about following, isn't it? It's not about having a goal, getting there and then having another goal. It's about following our path and following in the direction. Sure, we're going to accomplish things along the way, but it's not just about accomplishing, it's about moving in that right direction. So let's talk a moment about what a purpose might look like and how to identify it and how to plan to pursue it. Now, a purpose and a goal are related, but there are some subtle but really important differences. And I'M going to hope that I can make that clear as we go along. So let's look at purpose in three different ways. We want to look at what and when and what's next. So in terms of the what, the purpose. The what of a purpose is, what do you want to pursue? Is it a piece that you're learning or a repertoire or a skill that you're building? Is it a performance you're preparing for? What is that thing that you want to pursue.

That'S setting your course? It's also sort of giving you a destination. And you could look at that as a goal, but I want you to think about that as just sort of a mile marker, if you will. It's like a little port of call to keep our sort of nautical theme going. It's not where you're headed eventually.

Because our path as harpist doesn't stop, right? Our purpose doesn't stop just because we've achieved a goal. Our purpose is bigger than a goal. So we can think in terms of what we want to do, what we want to pursue.

And that might be something very concrete and finite, like, okay, yeah, I want to learn this piece. But our purpose actually goes beyond that. So think in terms of the what, first of all, because that's going to help you be clear about the direction you need to go, which is what purpose is. That's a direction next. When do you want to not accomplish it, but when do you want to reach that milestone? Is it going to be next week? Is it going to be next month, next year? Well, next year is probably too far out, but maybe not. So think about that goal, if you will, that thing that you're going to. Going to do, going to accomplish. That's that milestone. And how long do you think it's going to take you to get there? How? When do you want to get there? Because setting a time frame is very important for monitoring your energy as you go along. So we've got the what and we've got the when. And this is one of the critical differences, too, between a purpose and a goal. That third ingredient is what's next.

Not just the next goal, although that could be part of it. But I want you to think about that thing you want to accomplish and then think two or three steps beyond that. Think about this maybe as a staircase, and we see that landing where we're going to get to that first goal, that first. I called it a mile marker a minute ago. But what comes beyond that? What are the next things that will keep us in the same direction that will keep moving us in the direction of our purpose, but will be the next steps after we do this. So, for instance, maybe we're learning a big piece. Well, what are those next couple steps? Maybe it's another piece that's like that. Maybe we're building.

A recital repertoire. Well, there's ambition for you. I think that'd be great. Or maybe we're just building a repertoire of music to play for weddings. And so we have those stair steps built that way. But whatever it is, it's important to see that next leg of the journey, because when you can see beyond that one goal, then you're seeing your entire direction, and that's following your purpose, that's pursuing your purpose, and you're going to be more likely to stay connected to it. And when you're connected to it, your energy for it is better. That's what we're talking about. So now you see the connection between passion and purpose. But there's a third ingredient here, and that's progress. Progress is the natural result of passion followed with a purpose. Oh, that sounds good, doesn't it? But there are some important considerations to think about when you're talking about progress, and you know that, too. You know, as we all do, those of us who have practiced and waited for things to improve, that progress shows up in its own time frame. All we can do is do the right stuff in the right ways and focus our work. And then we have to believe that progress will show up. And if it's taken more time than we'd like, then we have practice strategies that we can use to move things forward a little faster, hopefully. But progress is a little bit of a mystery because we know we're doing the right things, but yet.

The improvement seems to shift so much from day to day. Right. We have good days, we have bad days, things that we thought we fixed unfix. And that's part of the process. It's a frustrating part of the process, but there it is.

So let's look at progress just a little bit differently today. Progress is certainly dependent on your passion because it's dependent on your excitement for playing the harp. And this is where we can run into issues. If your progress is too slow, it can diminish your excitement for getting to the harp to practice, which is just a spiral downward into the dirt. Right? You don't want that. And it's also dependent on your purpose, your reason for doing it, the direction that you're following, and your level of excitement about that part of it. Too. You can also think of progress as a reward. Right. It's not an arbitrary once and done, you know, finish the marathon, got the T shirt kind of reward, but it's a visible and audible and tangible reward for our work. It's a sign that we're able to do things better than we could before, whatever it was we were trying to improve. We have to be able to know what progress looks like for us in any specific situation in order to recognize it. That reward shows up differently. For instance, if you're thinking about strengthening your technique, strengthening your technique is often something that has a longer time frame, particularly if we're looking for more flexibility or more speed. That's a pretty gradual growth process. So we have to know what progress is going to look like over that time frame in order to really be able to enjoy it. On the other hand, learning a piece of music, some pieces have shorter time frames than others. We can see progress in some parts more quickly. And there's a great reward at the end of that. Right? Our technique practice. Yeah, it's really great to have fast fingers, but we have to know that those fingers are going to do something for us in terms of playing music faster, which is what we're looking for. So that's a slightly more remote payoff because it's not directly tied to the work we're doing when we're practicing a piece. Yes, okay, I learned section A. We can see that payoff right away. And so that's the reward part of progress. What's interesting about this, I think, though, is that without our passion at the core of it, without our inner why, then there's no anticipation of the enjoyment of that outcome. You know, we don't get to be excited about the fact that we are going to make progress. And, you know, if making progress, if playing the music doesn't excite us, then it's hard to think about putting in the effort that it's going to take in order to do that. I see this all the time with people who are required to play music that they don't particularly like. Maybe it's for an exam situation, or maybe they're having to learn an ensemble part or an orchestra part that they just don't like. And when you don't like something, it's really hard to make progress at it because it. Just because you've got forces that are working against each other instead of everybody going in the same direction. So you need to find a reason to like what you're doing. You need to find direction in what you are trying to work on in order to get the progress that you're looking for. So that's one example where you really are required to have that passion and that sense of purpose. And you may have to sort of artificially apply them in order to see progress to something in our normal playing, though, that. That passion and purpose aren't so much of a problem. And when they're aligned with our practice, then the progress will show up, whether it's as quickly as we would like or not. That's another question. But purpose is important here because without purpose, there's no way to measure that progress, even if you're making it. Without that purpose, there's no sense of progression and possibility. Oh, possibility is so important. It's that, well, maybe I could do this feeling that propels us through the early stages of learning a new piece before that messy middle sets in. Right. It's knowing what you want to do, what you're trying to do, and how you're trying to do it where you started compared to where you want to go. So you can tell if you're getting there. Okay. This is why it can be so hard for us to see or evaluate our own progress. We're really too deep in the doing of it to be able to get a bird's eye view. And that's why it's so important to set that direction for yourself, because it'll help keep you on track when you really can't see where you're going. Like being out in the middle of the ocean without navigational aids. That would be Right. You. It all looks the same. How do you know you're going in the right direction? Well, because you already set that course, and all you have to do is stay that course and you're going to get where you want to go. You're going to make progress. Now, you can also visualize progress as a movement up that. You know those stair steps that we talked about, they could be, you know, landing stages along there so that you might spend a certain amount of time on each little landing stage when you get there. I'm going to work on this one for a while. But there are clear steps ahead of you and there are steps behind you. You've made progress, there's more you want to do, but this is where you are right now. But those steps are leading you in a direction to follow your purpose, and that purpose is in alignment with your passion. It's another way to look at progress. Any one of those ways to look at progress can help you over one of those rough spots when you really need some encourage. But sometimes you just need to know if you're actually making progress. So here are a few ways that you can tell if you're making progress. You have to set up markers. For instance, you need to know your purpose. Stair steps. Okay, so we're going in this direction, and here are these milestones or stair steps. I've called them any number of things. Today.

I'm going to get to this place first, and then I'm going to get to this place. What was that last step that you arrived at before this when you were working? What was that last one you got to. All right, well, maybe you're learning a piece and maybe your last stair step was, oh, I got the first two pages learned. All right. And maybe your stair step that you're working on is to get the third page learned. That's great. Well, what are the steps after that? You're going to learn the last page and then you're going to put it all together. Look at those stair steps. And if you feel like you're stuck on the step where you are now, take a giant step and go to the next step before you think you're ready. That will show you where your progress is going, how much progress you've made, and it will give you some incentive to keep pushing through and keep making progress. So don't just stay on the step where you are, take the next step. But in order to do that, you have to know your steps. So that's one thing. You also should know your next level skills. How are you making your playing easier for yourself? How are you finding more mastery and confidence? Are you working on these technical skills? Are you working on these particular musicianship skills? What is it that you need to improve to get to the next level of your playing? However you look at that, remember that we talk about levels like, oh, beginner, advanced, beginner, intermediate, early intermediate, late intermediate, advanced, advanced, intermediate. You know, those are kind of meaningless. I want you to think about what your next level is, what would mean to you that you have gotten to the next level, and what skills do you need? What skills will you have when you have gotten to that next level? Because those are the things you need to work on. Those are the things that will show you you're making progress. Lastly, keep your purpose in front of you, your direction, check in with it at least weekly and map that direction out with your teacher. That's so helpful to have some assistance in really planning this direction. This is what I want to go. So what is the path gonna look like? And by the way, this is exactly what I'm gonna be doing with our retreaters at the getaway retreat at the end of February. I'm gonna be working with each of the retreaters to identify those purpose stair steps and mile markers, set that direction, look at those mile markers, and deciding what skills are going to be required for each, how that's going to get them where they want to go. And of course, we'll be talking about boots on the ground, kind of strategies to make all of that happen. That's what we're dealing with at the retreat, and that's what a teacher can help you with. Oh, all right. We're going to set this as our direction, and the direction, of course, that purpose has to be aligned with your essential why of playing the harp. And then when we set that direction, then we'll be able to look at those stair steps, at those landing places along the way where it's. All right, well, we're going to be doing this, and then this is part of that, and this is part of that, and this is part of that, and it'll make progress so much easier to see and easier to achieve as well. Now, you may have tried this kind of a system before and found that it doesn't work. And if that's true, here's probably why most of us aren't very good at teaching ourselves. Sure, yeah, we can follow directions, right? Give me a YouTube video and I'll follow it. But realistically and objectively, seeing where we are really very hard, when we don't have a realistic view of what we're doing, just because we don't have the expertise to see it objectively, then it's really hard to see where we're going and to find those stair steps and to find the skills in a progression that makes sense and is really going to work. And to do that, that takes objectivity, which is, of course, really hard when you're talking about your own skill set. Right. And it takes experience, which is what we're trying to develop, and we may not have that yet. And it takes expertise. And the real challenge here is that the work that got us to the place we are now won't get us to the place where we want to go, because we have to be working at a new level to get to the new level. So the knowledge to move us to that place isn't something we have have yet. And that's that sort of circular dilemma. And that's where Expert help is so necessary. Now, it's not impossible to do this on your own, but it's definitely the slower and more uncertain path. So working with a teacher is going to save you so much practice time. It's going to relieve you of so much stress and self doubt. Right. It's like calling in the electrician instead of trying to fix the wiring yourself. A really good idea, right? But you can and you should of course start this process yourself because you're the only one who knows your passion. So feel your passion and name it and write it down. And you can and should choose your own purpose. I mean, after all, you're doing this for you. So you choose this direction. And remember, this isn't a set in stone kind of thing. You can always change your direction, but you're gonna do it with a clear purpose. Not just because what you're doing isn't working or because you saw something else that looks fun. We need to really be sure that we're not just distracting ourselves because the distractions are fun, but that we're still looking to go where it is you really want to go. So when you have that kind of those two steps in place, then it's time to plan your progress. And remember, if you need help with that step, that's what I'm here for. So think about it this way. You want to feed your passion, know your purpose and plan your progress. Got that? Feed your passion, know your purpose, plan your progress. Those are the three big steps and that's what's going to get you where you want to go. Now, a while back, I mentioned some resources that I was putting in the show notes for you. So there are a few. There's a podcast episode number 94 called Seven Skills that Mark your growth. So if you're looking for those next level skills that I talked about just a second ago, that might help you identify some of those skills that you need to get to that next stair step on your progress path. So the podcast episode, the link to that is in the show notes. It's called seven Skills that Mark youk Growth. There's a blog post from the archives that I want to suggest, and it's called do youo Need a Reason to Practice? Three Reasons to Find One. I know it doesn't sound like we were talking about practice very much today, other than the path to progress for sure, but this is a different look at why practice is important. And it might resonate with you, particularly if you're trying to define your passion. So that block I Have linked to that in the show notes. Once again, it's called do you need a reason to practice? Three ways to find one. You can always go to Harp Mastery and you can go to the blog page or the podcast page and you can search right there if that's if you can't remember where we're going or if the links don't work for you, but they are right there in the show notes. And then of course the third one, I would be remiss if I didn't mention we still have spots available at the getaway retreat. So if you're considering trying to get help to help you identify what progress is going to look like and how to make progress with your passion and your purpose and you need help sort of identifying those and you know, concentrating your thoughts and putting everything in place, that's going to be the place to do it. Because that's what we'll be working on at the retreat, both as a group with workshops and individually in our one on one work. That's what we're going to be focusing on and of course learning whatever you want to learn. All those things that happen at a Heart Mastery retreat. But that's our focus for this one. Passion, purpose and progress. And that's what I want to be sure our retreaters walk away from this retreat with knowing that they have identified their passion, they understand their direction and they're prepared to make progress in the easiest and fastest way possible. So that's the focus for the retreat. And if this is of interest to you, that's going to be the place to be to get my help working with you on that path. The link to register for the retreat is in the show notes. You can, or you can just go to heartmastery.com, look under upcoming events and you'll get to the retreats page. Registration is still open. This is a great time to do this and I would love to work with you at the retreat. So if that's of interest to you, jump in there and. And I'll do my little happy dance when you register. That's for sure. So thank you so much for being open to this kind of a topic. I know it's a deep one, deeper than we sometimes get into here on the podcast. Next week we have something considerably different and something holiday related, which is of course always fun. I'm going to be sharing the surprising backstories to three Christmas songs. They all share a Czech heritage. Czech as in like Czechoslovakia, Bohemia, the Czech Republic, you know. And in fact I know that one of these stories is going to surprise you because you know this song really well. But I'll bet you have no inkling that it has this history with the Czech folklore, so that's going to be interesting. You probably think it's an American song. Ha. I have news for you. Anyway, all these songs have interesting backstories, and if any of these are in your repertoire, the stories may help help breathe new life into these old favorites for you. So I look forward to talking with you next week. In the meantime, remember, every day is a day you can add more harp happiness to the universe, to your world, and to your spirit. And all you have to do is play. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next time.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. I release a new episode every Monday morning so you can hit your practice week running. Until then, remember to practice your harp happiness every day. See you next time.