This week the World Music Therapy Congress was held in Bologna. A lot of colleagues I know flew from all over the world to attend.
That would have been me too.
Last year I set the goal to travel around Europe after the conference — use the trip to test whether moving to Switzerland was actually possible. It felt like a natural next step after presenting at the Australian Music Therapy Association Conference in October.
Bologna was already on the list.
And then life did what life does. It reshuffled everything.
I mean, not in a bad way. It’s actually beautiful. But a reshuffle is still a reshuffle, and it changed my priorities and goals set this year.
Today in 5 minutes or less, you’ll learn:
✔️ One question to sit with when your old goals no longer fit
✔️ A reflection prompt on the season of life you’re actually in
✔️ Why shifting priorities isn’t quitting — it’s honesty
Doable ideas 💭
Open a note on your phone this week and write down the three things genuinely on your plate right now. Not the aspirational list. Not the list from January.
The real one.
Then ask yourself: do my current goals match this list, or am I still chasing a version of myself from a different season?
If there’s a mismatch, that’s useful information. You don’t have to act on it today. You just have to see it.
Mine right now: get at least one muscle-up, pass my Spanish B2 exam, learn to ride a scooter, and settle into a new job with a population I find genuinely interesting.
Bologna didn’t make the list. And once I wrote it out, that stopped feeling like a loss.
Reflections 🪞
What season of life are you actually in right now — and are your current goals honest about that?
What’s one goal you’re still carrying that might have belonged to a previous version of you?
Mindfulness 🧘🏻♀️
Priorities aren’t permanent. Seasons aren’t either.
Finding a life partner was always a priority for me, but it was never fully in my control. You can want something deeply and still have to wait for the timing to line up. That part is humbling.
The timing lined up. And when it did, everything reshuffled.
Suddenly the European conference tour wasn’t the main thing anymore. Building a life together, in the very ordinary day-to-day way, became the main thing. Meeting his family in his home country became the main thing. The new job I mentioned — genuinely interesting population, good for my career trajectory, exactly what this season needs — became more than enough. I didn’t need to also be flying across the world to prove I’m growing.
Bologna would have been nice. It became a bonus, not a baseline.
And that is okay.
A lot of us carry old goals around long past their season. We set them when we were single, or restless, or trying to prove something. Then life changes and we forget to update the list. So we end up feeling behind on goals that don’t even belong to who we are now.
That’s worth sitting with.
Making peace with the choices you make is quiet work. It doesn’t come with a highlight reel. Nobody claps when you decide not to go to Italy because something closer to home matters more. Nobody notices when you swap a passport stamp for a muscle-up goal and mean it.
But you notice. And that’s the part that counts.
What season are you actually in? Not the season you planned for, not the one that looks best from the outside. The real one. Are you still sprinting toward a version of yourself that has already changed?
Are the goals on your list yours — or did they belong to someone you used to be?
Seasons change. The list should too.
Ideas Worth Pondering 🧠
As long as you’re doing what you want, it’s not a waste of your time. But if you’re not spending your time doing what you want, and you’re not earning, and you’re not learning—what the heck are you doing?
— Naval Ravikant
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