Top 8 Tips To Achieve Your Dance Goals

Here are some great tips to achieve your dance goals.

1. Write it down.

The first and one of the most crucial steps in goal setting is to write it down! You can use so many different forms to write things down, it can be something as simple as quickly jotting down a note in your phone or handwriting it in a journal. Which ever you choose, make sure that you are setting these goals in a positive language format.

Example: Try using "Introduce yourself to more people in class" instead of "Stop being shy.”

Did you know that you can have about 1500 thoughts running through your head each minute of the day? That’s a lot of thoughts in a 24 hour span of time! By writing down your goals you will be kept accountable, avoid any cross overs of goals for different aspects of life and avoid forgetting them all together. This will also help you paint a clear picture about exactly what you want and it will allow you to focus and navigate through different paths for how you can reach your goal.

2. Find Balance.

It is important when you’re setting a goal that you are setting goals for different aspects of your life. Focusing on only dance goals can have negative impacts and set the scales to tip only one way. 

You always want to be having goals in a professional sense and in a personal sense to maintain both your physical and mental health. 

3. Break it down.

If you want to achieve big dreams you need to begin with thinking small. If you have some larger goals to set then sometimes believing that its do-able can be a bit of a stretch for our imaginations.

Think about how you will get there? What are the steps and milestones that you’ll reach before getting to that end goal? Breaking down your goals into smaller steps will condition your mindset into believing that it’s manageable and you’re much less likely to feel overwhelmed.

By creating an action plan with smaller steps and then milestone moments you can also have some positive things to celebrate whilst you’re on track to achieving your overall goal. These larger goals can take some time and you’ll want the celebratory moments to grow and foster your confidence along the way. 

4. Sharing is caring.

Naturally we want to keep goals to ourselves so that if we fail then we won’t feel embarrassed or like we’ve let anyone down. However, the effects of sharing your goals can have the opposite effect and actually help you along your journey.

Sharing your goals with someone that you trust will give you a sense of accountability and having the opportunity to discuss your goals can also help you fine tune them.

This person or people that you choose to share with will help with your motivation, give you support and encouragement and they will also remind you to celebrate those milestones along the way.

5. Be realistic with your goals.

Set yourself refined and measurable timelines which will make it very clear when you’ve completed a goal.

Write these down with deadlines for each step, if you’re more visual then you can lay out these deadlines in a calendar so that you can have a birds eye view over what time you have left. 

It’s important that you stay flexible and allow yourself a bit of room for mistakes or any last minute things that come up. It is completely normal for things to not go as planned or as you expected. Keep your dancing fun and lighthearted throughout your learning and growth process. 

6.  Revisit your goals and progress.

Looking back over your progress will keep your goals front of mind and gives you the opportunity to see what’s working and what isn’t working. You can make adjustments as you need to get yourself back on track throughout the process. 

Monitoring your progress will give you the opportunity to celebrate those steps and milestones that you’ve reached along the way. You can so easily get caught up when things get crazy in life, and by not reviewing these on a regular basis you may find yourself with a lack of motivation and possible forgetfulness.

7. Make sure your goals are realistic.

A good dance goal is S.M.A.R.T.:

‍Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.  

Most people have heard of the SMART goal setting acronym and yet still don’t make their goals specific enough.

Goals which are too vague can make it tough to see what you need to do in order to accomplish them. Instead of setting generalised goals like “I want to be good at Hip Hop” think about what aspects you want to learn, what skills do you need to focus on and create your goals around these aspects for achieving the overall goal. E.g. “Learn how to pop and lock by January 25th 2021”.

8. Celebrate your milestones and achievements.

Once you’ve reached your milestones and completed your goal then celebrate! You’ve had a great accomplishment and it’s not only well-deserved but it’s great positive reinforcement. This will build confidence in yourself and in your abilities and it will help you on your way to achieving many more goals in your future.