Use classical music to celebrate your achievements (big and small).
In this special series Registered Psychologist Greta Bradman takes you on a classical music journey for wellbeing, pairing simple exercises with incredible music.
Loading...Have you ever put on a great, uplifting, motivational piece of music during or after nailing an achievement? If so, you might know how fabulous a resource it is for sitting in that state of celebratory satisfaction, before cracking on.
Achievements and accomplishments are those moments that align with the completion of tasks that we attempt, engage with, and give a red-hot go. The outcome doesn’t even need to be as we had initially hoped for. Achievements, involve persistence, effort, and some sense of a journey toward an outcome. Motivation is a big part of that.
How achievement with classical music can add to your wellbeing
Classical music has this glorious ability to let you sit with an emotion, rather than moving on into the next moment. It can also help motivate you by connecting you with positive emotions, harnessing flow, and connecting with a sense of meaning and purpose.
If I asked you to list some of your achievements, you’d likely go looking for some of the bigger ones and discount the small ‘micro achievements’ from your day or week. But psychologist Martin Seligman’s research suggests that taking a moment to quietly celebrate small achievements is great for your mental health and wellbeing – as well as your future achievement.
It is human nature, however, to focus on the negative or on what needs doing. This is where music comes in as a valuable resource for helping you sit with and celebrate micro achievements, quietly and perhaps only for a moment before cracking on.
Research shows that being able to celebrate small achievements along the way predicts larger long-term success. It may be that if you down-play your successes, or you don’t recognise them and do what we humans do all so well and emphasise the negatives, over time we are likely to get into patterns of avoidance, or unhelpful thought patterns about our own ability.
Music can help you modulate your mood and the right music can encourage your mind to focus on the good stuff that you’ve achieved rather than that which has missed the mark. As such, it is fabulous to use when cultivating motivation and focus in service of goal-directed achievement. Whether these are big or small, even teeny goals that are still valuable parts of the journey forward. It can also allow you to sit with a feeling of satisfaction for a moment over finishing something small.
Our incredible minds love to point out what hasn’t worked well. Oftentimes if we try arguing with it, it’ll say “well I’m trying to prepare you for the worst” or “I’m trying to cattle-prod you into action by scaring you or shaming you.” It turns out that these approaches aren’t so great for our mental health or wellbeing, or our long-term achievement.
Tips for using classical music to recognise achievement
Take a moment to reflect on and enjoy your achievement, including your latest micro achievements, with help from our playlist of Music for Wellbeing: Achievement. Hit play at the top of this page.
As the music plays, think of everything that has allowed this music to come into the world. In the past, before the recording took place. Within the auditorium where the recording happened too, the musicians working together, contributing their own achievement toward the whole, in service of this glorious music.
As the music continues, reflect on your past week. Think not only of your individual achievements but everything you have contributed towards. Lean into the micro achievements, the collaborative achievements, maybe even some grand ones too, with the help of Music for Wellbeing: Achievement here on ABC Classic.
Greta Bradman is a soprano, Registered Psychologist and ABC Classic presenter.
Music for Wellbeing: Achievement playlist
George Frideric Handel: Water Music Suite No. 2 for orchestra in D major, HWV 349: II. Alla Hornpipe
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Graham Abbott (conductor) [03:02]
Niccolò Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 6: III. Allegro spirituoso
Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Rudolf Koelman (violin), Jan Vriend (conductor) [09:47]
Anonymous: Zarabanda del Catálogo
La Galanía, Raquel Andueza (soprano) [05:05]
Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude in C major, BWV 846 from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude
Michael Kieran Harvey (piano) [02:16]
Georgs Pelēcis: All in the Past
Martin Fröst (clarinet), Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra [02:46]
Eric Whitacre: The River Cam, for cello & string orchestra
Julian Lloyd Webber (cello), London Symphony Orchestra [11:48]
Ēriks Ešenvalds: Rivers of light, for soprano, bass, chorus & jaw harp
Portland State Chamber Choir, Ethan Sperry (conductor) [06:24]
Sally Greenaway: Dawn of Evening
Sally Whitwell (piano) [02:15]
Francesca Caccini: Ciaccona
Cappella di Santa Maria degli Angiolini, Gian Luca Lastraioli (conductor) [04:30]
Keith Jarrett: Sonata for Violin and Piano: II. Dance
Keith Jarrett (piano), Michelle Makarski (violin) [03:04]
Traditional: Naana maara haath
Lang Lang (piano) [03:57]
Antonín Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F major, B. 179 (Op. 96) 'American'
Orlando Quartet [23:41]
Erich Korngold: Straussiana
Bruckner Orchestra Linz, Caspar Richter (conductor) [06:47]