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Maybe Goals Should Go Out the Window in 2021

Happy Inauguration Day! Here is your inaugural Glory-Beaming Banjo post of 2021. Usually, I start the New Year with a post about my goals for the following 12 months. So far, I've been dragging my feet when it comes to figuring out exactly what those goals should be. 

After a difficult and stressful year that forced us all away from our typical social and communal interactions, I often found myself sapped of motivation to practice and ended up falling short of last year's goals. Quite frankly, I'm not especially interested in coming up with new bars to meet ... or not.

Sure, I want to get better and learn new tunes. Sure, I will continue to log my playing time and keep striving for that mythical 10,000 hours benchmark. But I don't want to feel beholden to a specific set of parameters right now. 

I think my biggest goal this year is to reconnect with the old-time community in Northeast Ohio and beyond. I want to be able to attend an in-person jam. I want to go to a festival. 

While I don't get to as many events as many others I know, this past year really showed me the impact of playing with others on my motivation to practice. 

So, my goals for this year? Just keep going. Strip away the pressure of achievement and find the joy of playing music. I will strive to keep the immortal words of Robert Cru
mb in my heart: "Music self-played is happiness self-made." 

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