DEFINE YOUR TOP-LEVEL GOAL FOR A MORE FULFILLED LIFE
Defining your top-level goal gives deeper meaning to your daily to-do lists and allows you to direct your time and energy in a way that best supports your professional and personal dreams.
Psychologist and author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth was a recent guest on one of my favourite podcasts: 10% Happier with Dan Harris, and during their discussion of what grit looks like in successful people she described top-level goals and how defining yours ensures you’re on the right path with your daily work.
What is a top-level goal?
Goals can be thought of as a pyramid, with low-level goals supporting mid-level, and mid-level supporting your ultimate top-level goal. Low-level goals are very specific things on your to-do list: get the shopping, finish reading your book. Mid-level goals are still discrete, but broader: organise family trip, find professional development opportunities at work. Top-level goals are sometimes called your “ultimate concern”, what you’re all about and your personal compass.
How can knowing this help?
Defining what is fundamentally important to you seems like a good thing to figure out at any time, but one example she gave specific to this recession really highlighted the practical use of this concept now. Duckworth took the hypothetical scenario of a restaurant owner who is forced to close due to the recession. If their top-level goal is not to “own a restaurant” in and of itself, but maybe to “encourage a love and understanding of Turkish food in my new adopted home”, they might find a different way to fulfill that top-level goal. Maybe they pivot the business and start a local delivery box service for Turkish food, providing recipes and ingredients to allow people to create their own Turkish food at home. Of course closing down a restaurant because of a recession is heartbreaking, but defining what their top-level goal is might make it easier to pursue a different version of the business. To feel like they’re still on their chosen path and help them to take the power and control back in the situation.
How does this relate to music?
For musicians who’ve lost their gigs because of Covid, this process could help you find a way to feel like you’re not just treading water until the gigs come back. Whether you find a new way to pay the bills, or just a way to feel creatively fulfilled, this could help you find something new to focus your energy on; a different iteration of your dream.
If you discover your top-level goal isn’t “to play concerts on tour” but “share my love of music with people” then you could might enjoy using this time to grow an audience on social media for your online lessons, start a podcast analysing and reviewing your favourite records, or start a youtube channel where you discuss music with other musicians who inspire you. If you figure out your ultimate goal isn’t actually music at all, but to make money (for example) then maybe this is a good time to retrain for another profession. Maybe you fell into live music as a job and have actually felt stuck? This is the perfect opportunity to make a change. Once you know what ultimately drives you, you can make educated decisions on what to pursue for this gig-free period, or for the future.
How to put this into practice.
So how do you define your top-level goal? You basically just ask why? why? why? until you land on something that is fundamental. Example: I really enjoy building houses for a living. Why do you like it? I like that people appreciate my work and pay me for it. Why? Because it feels good to spend my time creating something that makes people happy. Why? Because being creative and valued is important to me. So maybe this person’s ultimate goal is: “To help others through my creative building”. A goal which is possible to achieve in lots of different ways, not just by building houses. They could start or join a not-for-profit helping to rebuild homes in areas affected by natural disasters, make custom furniture, or teach woodworking online through how-to videos. Knowing what fundamentally drives them opens them up to a variety of different opportunities and ways to fulfill that goal. Note: Angela suggests your top-level goal should be approximately 10 words.
My top-level goal.
My own process of dialing this in isn’t complete, but I’ve realised that a lot of what drives me in music isn’t actually the physical act of playing bass (though I do enjoy that too!) but more facilitating a wonderful experience for both the musicians I’m playing with and the crowd. I enjoy helping things go smoothly on and off stage, so the musical experience can be as close to magical as possible. It’s this desire to facilitate a smoother road to good music that motivates me to write tips and advice for working musicians, to help get them over a few hurdles and closer to a great music making experience. So my ultimate goal is going to end up being something along the lines of “to help facilitate great music through leadership and education”. Knowing that is what drives me makes it easier to spend this time writing and not performing, because I know I’m still pursuing my own top-level goal even when I’m not on stage.
Not just what, but how.
Another nice touch that Dan and Angela discussed was adding a comma to your goal. So you define your goal and then add a caveat for how you want to achieve it. It might be, while taking care of my family, or while living a healthy lifestyle. These caveats mean that you strive for your goal, but do so in a way that is positive for yourself and those around you.
I’m still working on it, but for now mine is “to help facilitate great music through leadership and education, with a focus on kindness”.
