January is a month of resolve. The New Year spurs motivation for many to achieve greater things and become better people. Sporting goods revenue skyrockets as the resolved buy ambitious new elliptical machines, while donut sales plummet.

As for us harpists, we often think similarly as we turn the calendar to January, craving an even better year of practice. So when I saw Harp Column’s 30 Day Practice Challenge, I resolved to sign up. I loved the guidelines: pick a focus piece, practice at least 20 minutes every day, and perform at the end of the month. I chose the lovely Sarabanda é Toccata by Nino Rota, and on January 1, I made my first of 30 journal-entry videos to post on my Instagram account. As a harpist fresh out of grad school, practicing every day isn’t a new thing for me, so I didn’t expect the challenge to be difficult in that regard. Instead, I planned to use the opportunity to learn a great new piece and have some extra accountability while doing so. As it turned out, however, my 30 days of practice presented some surprises.

Week one brought the first surprise: vulnerability. Now, I realize this is partially self-inflicted. The challenge guidelines did not require daily videos to post on Instagram—that was my variation on the theme. Still, I was committed to it, though it was uncomfortable at first. For me, practicing isn’t always a rosy walk in the park. Some days are magical—I feel energized, I feel motivated, and my hands seem well-oiled and ready to play. Other days I roll out of the wrong side of the bed, requiring more than my usual cups of coffee while my fingers take what feels like forever to warm up. The challenge forced me to push through those not-so-good days, practice anyway, and produce at least a short clip I could be proud of every day.

The second surprise was more positive. Week two was by far the most fun. That’s when I did the bulk of my work on the Rota, began speeding it up, and noticed the biggest improvements in my progress. But what was more surprising to me was how fun the #30daypracticechallenge community was! So many other harpists around the world decided to post daily Instagram videos during the challenge, too. If I didn’t feel particularly motivated to practice, all I had to do was click on the hashtag and watch the other harpists diligently practicing away. It was incredibly inspiring. There were even some practicing trends that went on. One of my favorite practice techniques, the “3x Perfectly Rule” (don’t move on from a section until you can play it perfectly three times in a row), happened to trend among the Instagram harpists, and it was so much fun to watch everyone’s focus pieces get faster and more precise.

Week three’s challenge was the most unexpected of all. An unfortunate combination of harp and non-harp related events caused me to injure my right-hand fourth finger at the beginning of the week. Having never experienced a harp-related injury before, this was a huge surprise and pretty debilitating. On top of everything else, I had to perform an all-baroque recital that week. My plan for the recital had been to perform the Rota ahead of schedule, explaining the ways it drew from baroque genre, form, and harmonic technique. But it proved to be rather painful to practice, with its big rolled chords and reaches, and so the night before my recital I decided to cut it from the program. I replaced it with two old favorites by Scarlatti and Telemann, which didn’t overuse my injured finger. It proved to be a good decision. I was very pleased with how the recital went, and my finger thanked me for a break. Commitment to my goals is incredibly important to me, but I also know it’s important to listen to my body and make changes before things get out of hand. I gave my finger a 24-hour break from practicing, and thankfully I was able to practice later the next evening and stay on track with the challenge. Easing back into the Rota in week four, I put the final touches on the piece before the performance. Because my fellow Instagrammers had followed me throughout my journey, I chose to perform for them as the culmination of my month’s work. Using Instagram’s live-video feature, I broadcast my performance from my living room in Virginia for more than 80 people.

At the end of my 30-day journey, I can confidently say that although it was more of a “challenge” than I had anticipated, it was completely worth it. I began to expect more of myself while balancing that with confidence. I learned how to navigate through an injury and complement commitment with self-care, and I joined an incredible community of supportive and inspiring harpists around the world. In fact, I decided that the 30 Day Practice Challenge was so worth it that I would keep going: I’m currently striving for #100daysofpractice and growing more and more each day of the journey. And though in the spring I might be using the elliptical less and eating donuts more, I know that everything I learned through my January journey is going to stay with me well past those 30 days.