Renewing Your Motivation to Achieve Goals
Did you set a New Year’s resolution only to find that halfway through January that you may have been a little insane? We can relate. When many people think of goals, they’re picturing their final goal - the final result - and all of the glory that comes with achieving it. In the midst of goal-setting, the amount of work and energy it’ll take to get there is rarely considered. They tell themselves they’ll conquer their goals by any means necessary, which is great, in theory, but is not always realistic.
As a dancer, whether your goals for the year consist of mastering a new technique, being selected for a role in a major production, being accepted into a major dance academy, or scoring your first professional dance gig, you’ll need patience, perseverance, and intentional investments of energy in order to get to the finish line.
Related: Creating a Vision Board
If you feel stuck at a standstill, don’t erase your list of resolutions just yet. Below, we’ve shared a few techniques that’ll help you feel like you’re making progress while indirectly leading you towards success.
Seek inspiration
Searching for inspiration is an important part of sparking your creativity and getting your imaginative juices flowing. You could attend a dance performance, visit a museum, or spend time with other dancers who inspire you. Exposing yourself to inspiring things can be just what you need to reignite your motivation while being reminded that there is more than one way to reach your goal.
Read Books
It’s true that everything you’ll ever need to know can be found in a book. Go to the library and check out some books that show dancers in their element. You can study their lives or career journeys to understand how they overcame obstacles or what led them to make the decisions that got them where they are today. There are also so many non-dance-related books that can give you the wisdom and tools you need to take yourself to the next step.
Talk About Your Goals
Oftentimes, people may keep their goals to themselves until they achieve it, just in case they fail along the way. Sometimes, though, it’s best to do the complete opposite. Share your goals with your trusted friends and family. Talk to your dance teacher about them too! Not only does this help your goal become more a reality, but it also gives those in your network an opportunity to encourage you, support you, and hold you accountable.
Create New Habits
Author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said, “Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.” While you wait for your opportunity to come knocking, make sure you’re doing the prep work. The things you do on a day-to-day basis can create a butterfly effect of productivity that ultimately leads you to achieving your goals. As a dancer, this may mean improving your strength daily, taking 30 minutes each evening to practice a routine, or even making it a habit to introduce yourself to everyone in the room when you arrive somewhere. Over time, these seemingly small changes could position you perfectly to receive the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.
Related: 5 Ways to Reflect on Your Year
Track Your Progress
As you work to achieve your goals, document your journey. For example, if you’re aiming to perfect a new technique, film yourself practicing once a week. Review your videos monthly to see your improvements and areas where you need to make adjustments. You could also track your progress in a journal, reflecting each day about what you’ve done to work toward your goal or how you feel about it. If your goal requires small steps to achieve it, map out a calendar and each time you hit a milestone, reward yourself! If you ever begin to feel the slightest bit of discouragement, being able to look back on how far you’ve come is a great motivator for not giving up.
Setting goals, especially at the beginning of each year, is exciting. The real challenge is maintaining that excitement while doing the dirty work. Hopefully, these techniques will help you keep your momentum along the way.