Today an Oh Wonder song came on while I was listening to one of my Spotify playlists. I have listened to them quite a bit and really like their music. I had never researched anything about the band, but I’m glad I did. Their first album, titled “Oh Wonder” has a non-traditional method of creation.
According to Wikipedia:
Starting in September 2014, Anthony West and Josephine Vander Gucht wrote, recorded and released one song on the first of every month for a year on Soundcloud. They have described the creation and release of their debut album as nontraditional, stating that the album consists of fifteen singles and was never conceived as an entire record. The debut album consisted of all thirteen songs, as well as two additional songs, “Without You” and “Plans”.
On the first of each month West and Vander Gucht released a song, which culminated into 13 songs being released. Combining all 13 self-edited songs, and adding two others, turned monthly projects into a full-fledged album.
Monthly Challenges
This is very much in line with my mindset of completing challenges set for myself. Instead of setting lofty goals, like composing, recording, and editing a 15-song album, I set more reasonable goals, like a song a month. In a monthly mindset I don’t classify these as goals, but challenges. Once I complete the challenge I move on, either go for another month or deem it acceptable and do something else.
Challenges force me to plan accordingly. They shape the curriculum of my days, and weeks. If I set myself a month-long challenge then I know in order to complete it I have to touch it each day. Blogging is a good example. I have written nearly 40,000 words, over 90 posts, in the past 2+ months. I didn’t achieve those numbers by saying “I really want to write 40,000 words.” No, I achieved it by writing 200-500 words a day, sometimes writing even more words.
Arriving at Success
I don’t set goals for myself anymore, instead I set challenges. I say “I want to do X, Y, and Z, over the next month.” Then, I create a weekly, broken-down to daily, timeline/gameplan to complete the monthly challenge, and go about my business. Each day I’m checking something off my list that’ll help accomplish the challenge, but I no longer need to look at it as an insurmountable goal. Accomplishing challenges will help lead me to success. Pushing forward, even if only half a millimeter, is closer to my long-term success than doing nothing. Challenges force me to do something.