3 Things Every Dancer Should Know About Setting And Achieving Their Dance Goals - Part 2

By Kimberly Kjersten, Dance Instructor and Life Coach

PART 2 OF 3 – this is a 3 part series; check out part 1 at the link below and stay tuned for part 3 next week!

Welcome back, friends! To recap, in the first part of this series we talked about deciding what result you’re looking for overall in your dancing, then setting 2 or 3 specific and measurable goals that will lead to that result. Then, you chose ONE of those goals to focus on first.

Be sure to check it out at this link if you haven’t already!

Have your one specific and measurable goal ready to go? Great, onto part two!

The second thing you need to know about setting and achieving your dance goals: Create a specific and simple plan BEFORE diving into action is a huge key to success.

Measure Your Current Progress

Remember how we talked in Part 1 about making your goal measurable? Before you start working on your goal, you will want to measure your current abilities in some way. This way, when you are finding it difficult to keep working on your goal (because that happens!), you can look back at where you were when you started, to see the progress you’ve made. Seeing that what we’re doing is working and that we’re making progress really helps with motivation!

In what way did you decide you would measure your progress?

If your goal is to get your splits, you might measure how many inches away from the floor you currently are in your splits. If your goal is to focus more in class, you can count how many times your teacher tells you to pay attention in your next class, or how many times you notice that you are thinking about something other than class.

Measure where you are right now, then write that down and put it where you posted your goal. Remember to keep this somewhere you will see it regularly, so you don’t forget!

Make A List of The Action Steps

Next, write a list of everything you need to do to reach your goal. Write everything you can think of. For some goals, it may be a short list of things you do over and over. For others, it may be a really long list! And sometimes, you might not know everything you need to do and, in that case, write down what you DO know.

Then, if your steps can be broken down into teeny tiny steps, then do that. For example, if your goal is to get your splits, rather than saying hold my splits every day, you might say:
1) hold my right splits for 2 minutes every weekday
2) hold my left splits for 2 minutes every weekday
3) hold my center splits for 2 minutes every weekday
Along with the other tiny steps you can do to reach this goal.

Remember, if you need some help, you can email your dance teacher, set up a time to chat about it, or you can search the internet for ideas. Do as much work on your own, though, as you can because it will help you in your problem-solving skills, and the practice will also help you with your future goals.

Add Actions to Calendar

If you don’t already have a calendar, get one just for this goal. You can print free calendar pages from the internet (with your parents’ permission, of course). Then, add your tiny action steps to your calendar, making sure to schedule these steps at times when you know you will be able to achieve them. In other words, don’t schedule it during school or when you know you have other plans!

Make sure you keep your plan simple and realistic. It can be easy to overdo it in the beginning when you are excited about your goal, but if your plan is too complicated, it will be really hard to stick with it.

Account for Obstacles

Often, things will come up in your day or life that make it really hard to follow through with your plan. These are your “obstacles”. It’s important to make a plan for the obstacles that might come up, so you don’t have to figure them out in the moment, or so you don’t decide to not work on your goal anymore.

So next, ask yourself what might come up that will keep you from completing your action plan for that day or week. Make a list of anything you can think of. Then for each obstacle on your list, write out a simple plan for what you will do if this happens.

For example, if you know you might have homework to do right after school, then you could either decide not to plan your action steps for after school, or decide on a second time of the day to complete them if the first time doesn’t work out.

Another example could be that your parents decide to go on vacation during the time of working on your goal. How might you still be able to keep working toward your goal while on vacation? Can you have your parents help you to find times that you can complete your action steps while on vacation? Can you simplify your action plan for the time you’re on vacation and then double your efforts once you get back?

Make a simple plan for each obstacle on your list and keep it with your written goal, measurements and calendar, so you know where to find it when you need it.

Evaluate Progress

Part of strategizing is also including regular evaluations of your progress. Your evaluations can be weekly or monthly, your choice!

In your evaluation, you will write out:

• What is working with your action plan?

• What isn’t working with your plan?

• What will you now do differently?

This is a good time to bring out the measurements you did in the beginning and to see what progress you’ve made. If you’ve made a lot of progress and feel good about the actions remaining on your calendar, then keep going!

If you have not made the progress you would have liked, or if you are struggling to keep up with your plan, then make adjustments. Don’t forget to change your calendar to account for these adjustments.

Also, don’t forget to give yourself a big pat on the back for all your work so far!

Now What?

The point of all of the work we just did is to make all decisions ahead of time. That way, when it’s time to actually start working on your goal, you don’t need to wonder how, when, or where you will make it happen. It will make the plan much easier to get through and to continue with until you’ve reached your goal!

All of this planning can be time consuming and sometimes confusing, but it is so worth it. You are much more likely to make progress and stick to your goals when you make a plan rather than diving in right away.

Now that you have your action plan ready to go, you can begin working toward your goal BUT stay tuned for the last part to be released next week. You won’t want to miss it because it is often the biggest key in reaching your goals!

I’ll see you then!

Kimberly Kjersten
Dance Instructor – 18 years
Retired Professional Dancer – 6 years
Goal & Results Life Coach – 3 years
www.instagram.com/theabundantedge