My Year in Review: Remembering What Really Matters - PHH 135

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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 playing the harp the way you want me 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. Welcome to the show. The year end wrap has become a hot trend, the worthy practice of reflecting on the year that's nearly over. And the new one that's about to start is no longer simply a quiet moment with a cup of tea and a journal. It's an opportunity for businesses to go public with their successes. We have at Heart Mastery have jumped on the bandwagon too. It's fun to look back and see what we've accomplished. That's great, but it's also important, perhaps even more important, to see where we missed the mark. Somehow, though, those aren't the numbers that show up on social media. We like to count the wins. But this episode isn't about what Harp Mastery has done. After all, this is isn't a business podcast. This podcast is about you. It's about me and our heart playing. And that's what this episode is about too. So I want to share with you my own sort of system for looking back, for remembering what my year was like. I start in the same way you might by looking back at my calendar week by week, month by month. But my objective isn't to see how many goals I've achieved or missed. This isn't moment for numbers or statistics for me. This is a moment to acknowledge the changes that happened in the year, both positive and not to acknowledge the harp happiness that I experienced and the people that were a part of my year. I want this process to provide me with perspective and clarity and of course, a place to start from for next year. So I'm sharing this with you today, thinking that My ideas may help you find more clarity too. Clarity is where growth starts. It's what gives direction and purpose to our actions. It's actually what gives meaning to our music. The great cellist Yo Yo Ma says this music is powered by ideas. If you don't have clarity of ideas, you're just communicating sheer sound. So let's eliminate the meaningless sound, shut out the noise and and get clear on what happened this year. I have just a few things I want to mention to you before we get deep into reviewing my year and sharing a little bit about how that went. Just a few things that you may want to keep in mind right now because they're important right now. Registration for our 2024 winter coaching session ends this week. So if this is something that you've been considering working with one of our certified coaches and really getting in there and getting something accomplish in these first few months of 2024, this is a great opportunity to have that happen for you. But you have to get in there and register this week. You will find the link to the information about our coaching program and to register in the show notes. You'll also find it under programsheartmastery.com Next we are extending the festivities the merriment for our 12 days of harp Happiness this year. As you may know, the first 12 days in December. For the past four years now we have been releasing new sheet music arrangements and this year was no exception. We've been doing our 12 days of medleys, Mashups and Merriment. And although the special 50% each day discount is done, you can still use our special discount code to get 25% off of any any piece in this collection. So if you missed a day and you want to get in there, you can still get it on a discount. You just need to go through our shop and look for the Medleys and Mashups collection. I've included a link to that directly in the show notes and the Coupon code is 12 days 2023 with days being capitalized so the number 12 then D A Y S on CAPS 2023 and that will get you 25 25% off any piece in that collection. So that's still happening and that will happen through up until Christmas as well. And one more thing, I'll remind you about this at the end of the show, but since next Monday is Christmas Day, we're coming out with a very special podcast and one that won't take too much of your attention. The podcast itself will be just half an hour or so of my recordings of holiday music. So we've sort of put that together just so you can turn on the podcast and listen to it. And we also will have a link for you to a very special Spotify playlist. It's already up on Spotify. So if, you know, if you are on Spotify and you want to listen, we have Harpy Christmas, which it's. I think it's a three hour playlist that includes my recordings and recordings by other harpists as well. So you'll hear some really, really nice Christmas music and you can make it the background to your celebration. So that is our Christmas podcast for next week. But right now it's time to get and dig into what we wanted to talk about today. And that's working through our review of last year. Wow. You can tell I'm already thinking ahead. I already called it last year. It's still this year right now. All right, well, so let's do that. Before we can think ahead, though, we have to think backward. So this process is all about reflecting, thinking about what happened, what was meaningful, about reconnecting with what really matters to us, which will allow us to redirect. We can use it to redirect our goals, if goals are really important. But really what I like about this process is it allows me to redirect what I do in a day. It allows me to redirect my attitude, my perceptions, and really think about how I'm spending my time. To me, that's really important because if I'm not spending time in the way that is most important to me for whatever reason at that particular moment, then I'm not using my time well. And time is the one thing we can't get back right. So when I'm thinking about reflecting over the year, I'm really looking at three particular categories. For myself, I'm looking at change. What happened? What changed this year? Where was there positive change? Where did I see growth or progress? What were opportunities that I seized? What were maybe some new perspectives that I discovered during the year? I'm looking at change. And then there's change that's maybe not quite so positive. Was there a change in circumstances, you know, what happened, and maybe even looking a little bit at what I let slip through the cracks that I didn't really mean to. So this is change. And I start there. It's my smallest category, actually, but it's sort of interesting to look at things that were new, things where I moved forward, and things that might have gotten in my way. My second category that I Evaluate is my harp happiness category. What did I love playing? Where did I play? What was really fun that happened in my harp life this year? Was there something new that worked in my practice or my playing? Did I do some really fun performances? What happened for my students, what happened for my coaches? What happened for my colleagues? You know, where was I a part of somebody else's harp happiness? So once again, it's not about achievement. Although, as I go through my list, which I will share with you as I go through it, you'll see that there were things that I did that were especially fun. But it's not about counting up the concerts. It's not about counting up the hours that I practiced or the places that I played. It's about really thinking about what I enjoyed in my harp life. Now, if this isn't a way you're used to thinking about your harp playing, this is a revelation to think about not what you did, but what you loved about what you did. So much fun. Now, maybe harp happiness isn't a category that you want to include in your year end review. I mean, for me, it's a huge part of my life, obviously, and, and maybe it's just a smaller part of your life and it's not something you want to think about. But if, as I suspect, your harp is important to you, it's worth including in your year end review. Even if it doesn't take up as big a proportion of your review as mine does. For me, it's a major portion and you'll see that in just a second. And then the third category I look at is about connections. It's about people who I spent time with, who I met, who inspired me along the way. And that's also, that's perhaps the most rewarding category to look at. I was going to say it's a fun category, but I think it's really more rewarding because it lets me settle on the what's really meaningful, what's really important to me. So those are my three change. Harp happiness and people. And that's where I start. So what I do, not a big deal. I go through my calendar sometimes. I've been organized enough where I take notes on this week by week, and I can just look at my weekly review notes. But sometimes my weeks don't work out quite that way and I'm not perfect about keeping track of those weekly reviews as I go along. I try, but it's not a habit that I'm extremely consistent with. So I go through my calendar. It's like, oh, yes, there's so much to discover on that calendar. And thinking, wow, I didn't remember I did that. How very cool that was. So, you know, that's kind of a fun thing to do, and I really enjoy that. So having said all that and put that in front of you, I just want to give you this one little other note.

I had a pretty good year.

Not all my years are that good. And you might have had a particularly difficult year where you were dealing with illness or loss or major disappointments. That's okay. And it doesn't mean you shouldn't do this year end review. This is a way to help you identify those other moments, the ones that perhaps got lost in the background of all the other harder things that you were dealing with. So this can be a wonderful time to find those little nuggets, those little sparkle moments where it's like, oh, yeah, that's right, all this bad stuff was happening. But this was really fun. I remember that. So if you look, you can probably find those moments that were significant or inspiring or even just fun when you did them. So it's worth doing it, even though it's a little bit more difficult. I've been there, and, and I know how important it is when you've had a tricky year. It's a little harder to do, but it. The results are worth the time. So, okay, we're going to start with my first category change. Now, when I made my list, my review of the year this time. And I do it a little differently every time. Sometimes I'm more formal about it than others. This time I sat down with a piece of paper on a clipboard and my Google calendar, and I made my three columns. My column for Change, my column for Harp Happiness, and my column for People. And I just went through my calendar week by week, noting what I had actually done. There's very little that I do that doesn't show up on my calendar. My calendar really is how I can keep track of my life. So everything is there for me. You may have another system, in which case that's where you want to look for what happened with your year. The first thing that jumped out at me was actually something that happened on New Year's Day last year. But I didn't realize what was happening at the time. As I looked through my year, what I discovered was that I had instilled a new practice, a new habit, a new activity. And while my husband and I have always enjoyed spending time outdoors, I just realized that all of a sudden I had A new thing in my life and hadn't even noticed it until I started doing this. So New Year's Day for the past, well, since we moved back to the area where we have family here a few years ago, we hadn't been able to participate in this. But one group of friends that we have always does a New Year's Day hike. And it's a particular hike up a particular mountain. It's not huge and it's not a really taxing hike, but there's a special celebration with food and snacks and beverages and candles and a special song that we do at the top of the of the mountain in a little hut that's up there. And it's been a yearly tradition in this group for years and years. And when we moved back here, we were able to participate. And I realized that there we were right on New Year's Day and that was actually a commitment to a new hiking habit. We have two groups that we hike with every month and we did some big ones this year. Our biggest was actually hiking Mount Marcy in New York State. And we went with my brother and sister in law and a couple good friends. And he's an excellent hiker. He's better than all the rest of us at the hiking thing. And this was a big hike for us. And it was a 13 hour day.

And we were all exhausted by the end, but we had a great time. And so as I look through the year, I realized that we had a lot of those and they were really fun. And so what I discovered was that I'd instilled this new activity in my life, which I enjoy and I get to do with my husband, which is even better. Hadn't thought about that at all, but there it was, showed up on my calendar. So that was happy. One of the opportunities that came my way several times this year that I hadn't really thought about either was that I was interviewed for three different podcasts during the year. Now these were all business podcasts, but it was sort of interesting to be able to talk about how I work with harpists online and how we've set that up and how long I've been doing it. They were interesting opportunities for me to reflect and think about how Heart Mastery started and remind myself about why I'm doing it. So those podcasts were sort of interesting and kind of fun to do. And the third thing that jumped out at me in the category of change was something I was much more intentional about and something that was really much more difficult for me to do. And that was that. I hopefully advanced to a new level of relying on my team, relying on my colleagues. I am so fortunate to work with extremely generous people and amazing women. And these are my certified coaches, of course. They're amazing, and they've been helping me in incredible ways, taking new responsibilities and roles at Heart Mastery. The my Heart Mastery members see them now weekly on our Monday calls. And this has been huge for me. I started those Monday night calls in 2014, and to have some of my Monday nights back so that I can work on some other things has been such a blessing. And to be able to bring the expertise and knowledge that these coaches have to our my Heart Mastery members serves them better as well. So that's been a lesson and an opportunity and a change for me, and one that's been terrific.

Also, other important members of my team, my. My assistant, Lindsay, I've been working with her since 2019. She is incredible. You might have encountered her if you've been trying to get some customer service for something at Heart Mastery. Lindsay allows me to do what I can do best for Heart Mastery, and she's wonderful at helping me and helping all of the people who interact with Heart Mastery as well. And I could not do this without her. Similarly, my amazing social media person, Amy, who's newer to our team, but just.

She is the kind of person who I say, well, I don't know, can we do this? How should we do this? And she's just so chill, and she says, oh, I can take care of that for you. All you have to do is this. And so, so many of the things that we are able to do and the. The way we're able to get out, the information that we have is all due to her efforts. And I, you know, she's amazing. So these two women help Heart Mastery run and make it possible for me and possible for the certified coaches to just concentrate on what we do best, which is working with our harpists. Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the one big change that happened this year, and that is that one of our certified coaches, Coach Caitlin, has taken on new responsibilities at Harp Mastery as well. And with that, we created a new title for her, which really suits not only what she does, but suits her, I think, as well. And Coach Caitlin is now officially our dean of harpist success, and she has been doing a terrific job making sure that the harpists we work with have what they need, particularly in the coaching program and in my Heart Mastery. And so a special thank you to Kaitlyn. So these are amazing changes that. That happened for me and really terrific people that I could not work without. So to be able to just take that moment, to realize everything that happened this year and how they played a part was a big thing for me. When I started looking at everything I'd put in the harp happiness category, well, obviously it was kind of a long list, which was terrific because I looked at it and saw that there were many more concerts on there that I had played than I remembered. All kinds of concerts, whether they were school programs, which are always fun, or chamber music concerts, different kinds of chamber ensembles, solos with orchestras, solo recitals. So many concerts. And all of them fun, you know, all of them fun in their different ways. There were. There was one that was particularly fun, and that was this past summer when the Central Florida chapter of the American Harp Society hosted me for a weekend of workshops and concerts. I. I love teaching that way. I love teaching workshops. I love teaching webinars, of course, but teaching them live is even better. And I had the opportunity to do a few workshops, to play a solo recital, to be part of their ensemble recital the next day. So we had just a great time. And I really, really loved that. What a special thing it was and how grateful I was for the opportunity to do that. And the second biggest thing there on my harp happiness list, I mean, they're all big. I'm not ranking them. They're all big. But the second thing that showed up were the retreats that we had this year. We had the getaway retreat last February, and that, of course, was a Heart Mastery retreat and then followed by a Gold Circle retreat. Those retreats are so special. I love working with a small group of people at the Heart Mastery retreats. And to be able to get to know these people a little bit better, to work with them, to see where they want to move their heart playing forward and help them find the way to do that. It's just so wonderful to be able to spend that kind of quality time. It's just. It's. It's a gift, and I really, really enjoy that. And of course, the Gold Circle retreats. The Gold Circle, it's the. These are the students that I teach personally, and there are nine harpists in the Gold Circle program. And to be able to work with them at the retreats just for them, it's very special. They're a great group, and we work well, just one on one, but also in a group. So it's terrific. And I can't say enough about how wonderful those Harpists are and how privileged I feel to be able to work with them. So we had those retreats in February and we had retreats in August as well. The Gold Circle again. And a different set of students or mostly different. Some overlap at the retreat for the heart mastery portion of that as well. It's been great to get back to those retreats. I missed them so much during COVID and this has been so much fun to do. And of course, one of the other best things about those retreats is that I have so much wonderful help doing the retreats. My friend Denise who does all our food, and our wonderful friends Cheryl and Chip, who help out with everything there. The three of them are wonderful people. Dear, dear friends. And I'm so grateful that they help. Help me do what I do, but that I just get to spend some time with them. And it's a, it's a blessing for all of us for sure. You don't want me cooking at the retreats. I used to do that. Denise does a much better job. So anyway, that's one of those things that makes the retreats very special. And the third thing that was especially harp happiness filled this year was that I was able to get a new harp. Now I know that you understand how exciting it is to get a new harp, but I wasn't in the market for one. But this was such a special instrument and it was really all about the connections. One of my Gold Circle students had a friend and a co worker whose mother was a professional harpist, an excellent, excellent harpist who had gone to the Curtis Institute and studied with Salzado. And you know, I went to the Curtis Institute too. I didn't study with Salzido, I studied with one of his students. But what happened was that the harp that I had the opportunity to purchase, this harp had actually belonged to my teacher at one point. So this was something that, you know, came through Philadelphia, but by way of Arizona. And it was just this really interesting circle. But to be able to get this harp which has, you know, a personal connection, I, I imagine that this is one of the harps that I took lessons on when I was a child. And it's a great instrument, but it's so meaningful and it was so wonderful to have the opportunity to. To get that harp and, and just, you know, it's a special thing. So that was definitely a highlight of my year. Which brings me to my third category and sort of my favorite one, the people category. The connections, the people I spent time with people, people who inspired me Anything like that. And so, once again, as I'm going through my calendar, this is that sort of hidden item, isn't it? Because the people are often hidden in the events. So as I look at all those things I can remember, I can look back at the concert and say, wow, that's right. I remember at the reception for that concert, I talked with this person who knew somebody that I knew or had met somebody that. That was of interest to me. So there are all kinds of connections like that, and there are loads of them. It's important to me to take the time to remember those connections and to think about them, because if I don't, it's really easy to get caught up in just the stuff. And the people are really what I want to remember, to keep at the forefront of my own life, my own thoughts and everything I do. So I pulled out some highlights to share with you, and one is. Is the highlight that, you know, comes up every. Every year. I went to the American Harp Society Summer Institute, and of course, we've got the conference coming up in Orlando this coming summer, so that will be fun, too. But the Summer Institute was wonderful. It was in Los Angele. And this is an opportunity where I not only get to meet a lot of harpists, hear a lot of harpists play, talk to people, connect with harpists that I haven't seen in a long time, good friends, but it's also time to spend working and meeting with my fellow Harp Society board members. And so there's good work that needs to be done and gets done, and lots of fun events, lots of good times. So that was certainly a highlight for the year. My Gold Circle students, the Gold Circle students who have been with me for a long time and those who came in new in this past year, these are special people to me. They're not just harpists. They become friends. And to be allowed to speak into their harp journey and walk alongside them and encourage them is a privilege for me. And it's important to me to remember to celebrate that. And I'll thank them, too, next time I talk to them. Also this year, there were opportunities to reconnect with dear friends that I don't get to see often enough. Friends like my friend Joan, our friends Scott and Carolyn, Ed and Mary. These are people who mean so much to us, and it was wonderful to get to spend extra time with them. But as I looked through the year, there wasn't anything that was more important from a people standpoint than the wedding celebration that my husband and I attended for our Son and daughter in law in Wales. I mean, it was a great trip. That was terrific. And we took some extra time on either side of the wedding to travel to Ireland to do some extra sightseeing. So it was wonderful to spend time with my husband as it always is. But to be able to spend a week celebrating the wedding of two people, my son and daughter in law, who are so dear to me, whom I treasure so much. They're wonderful people. To see them around their friends and their family and to see them interacting with everyone with such joy, such love and such warmth. These are people who inspire me. These are. They're not just people that I love dearly, but they're wonderful people. And this was certainly a highlight of the year. A highlight. It will be a highlight for a long time. I have a feeling. While those were some of the highlights of my year, I don't want you to think that my year was perfect. No one's year is right. So there were challenges there, you know, wasn't all wins along the way. Lost a dear friend quite suddenly. This. My husband had some health issues that were pretty scary for a little bit. We had some things at heart, mastery that didn't quite go the way I wanted them to. Plans that I had committed to that I didn't follow through on. So they weren't all wins. But these are things that I either survived or things that I have an opportunity to do differently in the coming year. So I don't need to dwell on them, I can remember them, put them in context and move on.

What I want to redo, I can redo. Things that I can't change I can remember, I can learn from where that's appropriate. But looking forward is about seeing what worked and doing more of it. Looking for the opportunities, looking for those moments of harp happiness wherever you find them. Looking for the connections, the people, the people that you love, the people that you care about, the new people that you meet, the people that you run across who inspire you. Whether you have the chance to tell them that or not. All of that is what makes a year worth having lived. And for me, this is the way that I gather the energy and the excitement about starting a new year. So if you want to give my system a try, I encourage you. It's a wonderful way to remind yourself what happened and to give you some things to look forward to as you go to the new year as well. It's not all about goals. It's not all about numbers, it's not all about statistics. It's about the way we live our lives. Right? So as we're coming into the holiday, this is a great time to just take a quiet moment and remember everything that happened this year. Quick reminders, we still have coaching registration open this week only, so you have to get in there and register if that's something that is of interest to you. We have the discount code still open this week for those 12 days of harp Happiness medleys and mashups. And you'll find that link with the discount code in the show notes. So hop on over there. If you can't find the show notes in the in whatever podcast app you're using, go to harpmastery.com, go to the podcast and look for episode 135. So if you, if you're the type that likes to type it in, you can go to heartmastery.com Episode 135 and that's episode with a capital E. And that will take you right to the podcast page. So that's where you'll find that discount link. And remember, next week we've got a special Christmas episode. Nothing to instruct, nothing to inform, nothing you have to take notes on. Just a short little playlist of some Christmas music and of course, the link to the extended playlist on Spotify so you can hear me and other harpists as well gifting you some holiday music to be a wonderful background for your celebrations, whatever they are. Thank you so much for listening. I look forward to talking with you again next year. But remember that we do have that podcast next week, so tune in for that and I will be sure to greet you then. But I'm looking forward to talking with you on January 1st. Ooh. Of 2024. How much fun will that be? All right, I will talk to you very soon. In the meantime, remember that 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.