You are about to read the words of a 19-year-old girl who didn’t graduate high school and isn’t going to college. So if you’re looking for the norm or correct grammar and spelling, this isn’t where you’re going to find it. But if you’re looking for how to get what you want in life? Then buckle down and listen.
My name is Abby Anderson. I’m the second oldest of seven kids. I’m 19-years-old, didn’t graduate high school, and I have no plans to attend college. But one day I’ll be the top selling musician/artist of my time.
Now, I know exactly what you’re thinking because when I tell people this goal of mine, most of them give me that “yeah okay kid” look, pat me on the head and walk away. And that’s totally cool, I get it, most people don’t even go after what they really want in life anyways so their reaction makes perfect sense to me. But it brings up an interesting question; “WHY?” Why is it so uncommon to do what you love? To follow your dreams or heck to even dream at all? Where along the line do we stop believing in ourselves like we did when we were five? I don’t know the answer to that, but what I do know is that if you really want something, and I mean really want it, then there’s only one starting place to get it, goals.
When I was fifteen, I stepped into my Dad’s office and told him I would not be going to college because I was moving to Nashville when I turned eighteen. Well, I moved when I turned seventeen, started writing with some of music city’s top songwriters and producers, had a billboard charting song, opened for Kelsea Ballerini and Marie Osmond, and now, a year and a half later, I’m about to sign my first record deal. I have friends in this town that are ten years older than me, have been here 10 years longer and haven’t tread that kind of ground. That said, I still have a long way to go and a whole lot more to learn. But I’d say I’ve done pretty well for a kid – and I did it with goals.
Here’s what they don’t teach you in school; You can get whatever you want whenever you want it. Just set a goal, review it every single day, visualize it with the intensity of seeing it as reality, and then work. work. work.
Here’s the formula:
1) Your goals must be first person, present tense, and positive. For example, I wanted to open for Kelsea Ballerini from the first moment I heard her on the radio. So, I wrote down, “I open for Kelsea Ballerini the summer of 2016”. I had no idea how I was going to do it because at that point in time I was just an intern at a demo recording studio. But I made it happen.
2) Make it specific. Put a date on your goals. Notice I didn’t just say “I open for Kelsea Ballerini”, I also added, “the summer of 2016”. It makes it real, and it makes you hustle. If you don’t reach your deadline, make a new one.
3) Review them daily. Put them somewhere you will see them every day and carry them with you. I personally have them all written on my bathroom mirror and as my phone screen saver. Easy.
4) Make more goals. Set goals for this year, five years and ten years from now. It’s kind of like fortune telling except you’re the teller. You have control of where you want to be ten years from now.
5) Believe. Set goals for yourself that you truly and honestly believe you can reach but also push yourself. Set the bar high and rise to the occasion, you’ll surprise yourself at what you can really do.
This new year make your dreams a reality. There’s no reason why you can’t do anything you want to. God gave us a brain and the freedom to choose what to do with it. So go get ‘em.
Written by Abby Anderson
