I love the beginning of the year. I love setting intentions and goals for the new year or season. I like finding clean or fresh start moments from which to move forward and change a behavior or intention. Every year, I publish my resolutions for the year ahead but not until I’ve reviewed and reflected on my resolutions from the previous year. 2020 was whacky, but not all bad. I know the fact that I can even type that means I am quite blessed and very fortunate. 2020 was a year of immense personal growth, and while it wasn’t as successful on paper as I would have liked, I gained so much clarity, perspective, and motivation as to how to move forward in my life. I learned so much, put some old thought patterns to bed, found fulfillment and satisfaction in unexpected ways, and so much more jumped into focus as I gained some momentum moving into 2021.

Below, is a review of my goals and resolutions for 2020. As always, I give myself a grade to calculate how successful I was and summarize my efforts wins, and not-wins from last year. 

Sustainability – With COVID-19, my use of “to go” food materials, and bags dwindled. I also drove so many fewer miles, flew on fewer airplanes, and generally lived a much more local life with most errands completed on foot. Almost every single cup of coffee I drank was made at home and sipped from a reusable mug. We dramatically reduced the amount of waste from food consumption – including plastic bags, and switched to bar soap in the bathroom. HOWEVER, with COVID restrictions and changes of lifestyle, there was so much more ordering online and packages shipped to the home rather than picked up and bought in person. So, did I get more sustainable? I’m not sure. As always, this one should be kept as a hold over every year, as I could always stand to improve on this and find more sustainable solutions to all of my lifestyle choices. This one is worth working on for years to come.

Grade: ?

Read 60 books – Nailed it! I actually finished 70 books this year and I feel like a reading champion!

Grade: A++++

break 1:50 half-marathon time – I didn’t end up running very much this year. I tried for a few months, but running with a mask just really bummed me out – not to mention the whole most public bathrooms being closed thing made the thought of needing bathroom access in case of emergency a little stressful. I ended up walking many more miles this year and did hours and hours more yoga instead which felt great but I’m not sure it helped me succeed at this goal.

Grade: FAIL

Grow corpSonore – Oh yes. I think this happened. In fact, it is hard to shut me up about corpSonore anymore. We grew our audience and collaborator list immensely last year. Not to mention we clarified some major short term and long term goals and our vision for the future (plus a few of the baby steps to get there). I am so excited for corpSonore in 2021. Stay Tuned!

 Grade: A

Develop Active Violinist products - I finally have coloring books for sale in the Active Violinist shop! The Musical Asana Coloring Book was an idea I came up with 6 years ago and finally, this year was able to bring it to life with the help of my lovely collaborator and friend, Meghan Irwin. I’ve never been so proud of, and in love with a product ever in my whole life (except maybe my violin). It is my baby. It combines two of my loves into one beautiful offering that is accessible for musicians, non-musicians, yogis, non-yogis, and everyone in between offering a way to express your creativity and be part of the “performance” if you will. Check it out!

I also created shirts (another long-time goal) which are for sale on StoreFrontier.com – I love them and wear my AV shirts regularly. I know that probably makes me sound like an egomaniac, but they’re really comfortable and perfect for the loungewear revolution brought on by COVID-19. 

These offerings both felt like big accomplishments. I am so proud that they are now available but I have so many more ideas up my sleeve that I can’t wait to get cracking on!

Grade: A+ 

Cuppa - I am a lover of simple afternoon tea and have been dreaming of opening a tea shoppe for years. This year, I’m starting my tea journey with pop up tea parties all over Los Angeles. 

Well, obviously this year really wasn’t the time to launch in-person gatherings. I worked on my recipes in the first few months and had my “trial run” afternoon tea party planned for late March. I am trying to reimagine this idea into something else, maybe evolving it to include my other passions of music, health, yoga, books, and more. I love tea and want to use it as a way to bring people together. I’m open to any ideas you might have.

Grade: FAIL (I blame COVID)

East German Music Recitals – I dived into the research on this one and found so many great scores and pieces. I am slowly collecting these pieces and prepping them for performances in the future but sadly, most require at least one other person. I recorded a violin trio by Ottmar Gerster all by myself which you can hear on my YouTube page. I’m waiting out the COVID-19 restrictions before I move forward with performances but am loving the research portion and have been blogging about it regularly and will continue to do so in the future. As with anything worthwhile, research leads to more research. I can’t wait to share this music with the world soon.

Grade: A-

No Clutter! This will be a lifelong pursuit. My life gets really cluttered when things are busy and I’m having trouble keeping up with things. When life slows down, I tend to de-clutter and clean right away as it helps me relax and feel recharged. When COVID-19 first hit, I spent a great deal of time going through my music, cleaning out piles of papers and articles, etc. but it always seems to pile back up. I got better about cleaning and organizing more consistently in mid-autumn, especially with all the work from home this year, I’ve been much more consistent with cleaning, dusting, and putting things away when I’m done with it but accidentally collecting things that clutter areas is a weak spot for me that I am trying to curb.

Grade: B-

Contribute to the Conversation through Talks, Workshops, Critical Writing – I had many plans to contribute to the musician’s health conversation but I didn’t do nearly as much as I had planned on. I wanted to attend symposiums and conventions, write articles for other publications, and offer more specialized training but I didn’t quite manage to pull all of this off. I did speak at the YOLA National Conference this year and joined the PAMA Young Professionals committee which feel like small, yet mighty steps in the right direction.

AND I ended up doing so much training and research via Timani and Yoga Training that I’m almost relieved I didn’t publish anything before now. What I learned in my training this year will make my ability to contribute to the conversation much more worthwhile in the future. I feel so much more empowered and confident about the information I can offer now as a result and cannot wait to move forward and keep this resolution for 2021 to build on it.

Grade: C

Step Into My Power – I definitely worked on this. I said things (calmly, but firmly) to my colleagues, superiors, students, and others that held my ground and boundaries while respecting the authority I have without being a total jerk about it. I finally came to terms, thanks to Brene Brown and her book The Power of Vulnerability, with some huge amounts of shame I’ve been carrying around with me. When I finally began to shed this, it became a little addicting to stand up for, and find value in myself and what I can offer the world. I will never move away from this commitment to myself. It actually feels like self-care to be in my power, and feel confident about myself. I feel like I was set free and now I am finally soaring.

Grade: A

Budget – I am still bad at this. My financial behavior looks like this: Tell myself I can’t afford something, then Save save save save…. spend…. then stress about the expense or splurge or whatever it is that I decided to spend my money on. This is getting exhausting and I definitely didn’t make a budget or find more financial confidence this year. I invested more, and because of the financial uncertainty of 2020 for artists, ended up putting much more money in savings than usual, but my attitude about money really bums me out. Always feeling like I can’t afford something is no way to live and I need to work on this, keeping a budget, and understanding how to make money flow for my benefit.

Grade: C-

There you have it. My big resolution list for 2020. Overall, not too bad all things considering. What about you? Did you crush your goals for 2020?

Have you set any resolutions for 2021 yet? I’ll be sharing mine soon so stay tuned!