3 Mistakes Studio Owners Make When Setting Goals

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Going after goals isn’t easy, but hey – you can definitely increase your odds of getting there faster. Stop doing these three things and you’ll bust out your goals in no time!

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Stop Focusing on Results When Setting Goals
1.2 What Do I Do Instead Then?
2. Stop Dreaming About Your Goals
3. Stop Listening To Your Feelings When Setting Goals
4. Still Looking For Help Setting Goals?

1. Stop Focusing on Results When Setting Goals

Gasp! But what about goal setting?! Can’t I think about that?
Stay with me – I’m not saying to ignore results. In fact, I always START there during the planning stage. BUT… once the planning is done, it’s time to shift gears and think about RESULTS.

Real success comes when you get laser-focused on the actual PROCESS of reaching your goals.

Here’s where it gets exciting! Let’s take a real-life example that all of us are familiar with: 

Going to the dentist.

No one wants cavities. Or a root canal. Just the thought is painful! Yikes! No, we all want to leave the dentist’s office with good news at every checkup.
BUT…it’s not something that we think about on a daily basis.
We don’t think “You know, I really should brush my teeth tonight so I don’t have a cavity in September.” No way! We just do the daily habit of brushing our teeth, trusting that we’ll get a good outcome at our next dentist appointment.

That’s how it should be with ALL goals!

Stay committed to focusing on the PROCESS and eventually you’ll get the results you want.

What Do I Instead Then?

Let’s run through a few scenarios related to teaching piano:

Example 1 – You need more students.

The fastest way to see real results is to focus on the PROCESS daily. What does that look like? You could:

  • Create a flyer
  • Advertise on Facebook
  • Contact school music teachers
  • Give current students a referral credit
  • Consider teaching online lessons in another area

You get the idea!

Now focus on one step every day and you’ll be registering new students before you know it!

Example 2 – You need more money, but don’t you want to teach more hours.

Instead of stressing out over a lack of money, focus on the PROCESS. You could:

  1. Raise your rates
  2. Add a lab time 
  3. Transition to group lessons (adding just one class of group lessons would up your income…check out more info about group lessons here) 
  4. Add one group of preschoolers
  5. Create a product to sell

Now all you have to do is choose something to focus on every day, or every week. You might need to break your goals into even smaller steps, but keep plugging away and trust that the process will get you to your end goal.

TC240: Overcoming The Challenges of Becoming a Great Piano Teacher

2. Stop Dreaming About Your Goals

What? You don’t want me to dream anymore?!

Well…it’s good to dream. Just don’t stay there!

Here’s the truth: When it comes to goal-setting, one thing that people miss is writing down their goals and reviewing them daily.

Oh, we all know we’re SUPPOSED to do that. But few people ever do.

Real success comes when you actually WRITE DOWN your goals. (Don’t roll your eyes at me. This really works!) Put your goals down on paper.

Here’s a great exercise I want you to try. You’ll see in no time how it helps you push past “dreaming” and gets you seriously focused on what you REALLY want.

  1. Grab a notebook and write the date at the top of the first page.
  2. Write down several goals you’d like to achieve.
  3. The next day, do the same thing – WITHOUT looking at the previous page.
  4. Keep doing this for one month.

THEN at the end of the month, look back and take note of what goals keep showing up. THOSE are the things you need to go after.

Truth bomb! The second day I tried this, I literally couldn’t remember what goals I wrote on Day One. Embarrassing yes, but I’m keeping it real.

That’s when I realized there was POWER in writing down your goals. It gives you the opportunity to process what you REALLY want. And REMEMBER what you wrote down. Cause some of us need that! ​

If you’re after serious results, don’t skip this step!

Related: Download Your Free Mind Mapping Worksheets

3. Stop Listening to Your Feelings When Setting Goals

Oh, I know this sounds crazy! But hear me out! Many times in life we WANT to do things, but we don’t FEEL like doing them.

Serious results come when you focus on what you WANT, not what you FEEL like doing.

Feelings come and go. Often, they’ll lead us AWAY from our goals. Let’s go over a couple of examples and you’ll see what I mean!

Example – You want to get in better shape.

I’ll be the first to admit that some days I complain – I don’t want to work out!

But WAIT! That’s not really true. 

I WANT to work out. I just don’t FEEL like it. There’s a big difference! 

Don’t trust your feelings when it comes to going after goals!

Here’s another example – You want to rewrite your studio policies.

Most of us won’t cheer “Yippee!” at the thought of working on this project. Nope. More than likely, you won’t ever FEEL like working on it. But you know you WANT to get it done.

This is when you have to be a grown-up, ignore your feelings, and do SOMETHING. It’ll bring serious results in no time!

Still Looking For Help Setting Goals?

I’ve told you how you should not be setting goals, but what if you’re not sure about the type of goals you should be setting and why.
Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered!

Our course ‘Assess, Plan, Execute: How To Do It All with Tara Wright’ will guide you through a business assessment for your studio. Through assessing the ups and downs of your studio, you’ll see the plans you need to make and the goals you need to set to make sure your studio is the best it can be!

“Assess, Plan, Execute: How To Do It All with Tara Wright” is available to all Studio and Evolution members of TopMusicPro.