With 2015 looming on the horizon, most of us
are in a flurry of wrapping up our un-finished business of the past year, while
at the same time making New Years Resolutions. Setting goals, and putting them
down on paper- or on your computer screen- is definitely a way of making them real.
Take a few minutes to sit
down and have a heart-to-heart talk with yourself, deciding upon exactly what
you want to accomplish in the next year- and how to go about getting it! What you want is clarity in your desires,
permission to achieve them, and allowing the time to make them real.
Here’s a few ideas I’ve used when making
dance-oriented…or any kind… of New Year’s Resolutions.
Take A Personal
Inventory
Have a stroll down Memory Lane,
and see what you accomplished. Seeing
what has worked for you in past year. Did you accomplish everything that you
wanted to?
If not, why
not?
Looking at what you did in 2014 will help you
to define and refine what you want to do in the coming year. Avoid making the
same mistakes!
Write It Down, Say It Out Loud
Once you decide on what goals
you’d like to work on, say it out loud-to yourself and others, and write them
down!
These former thoughts are now no longer just
free-floating ideas in your head…and that’s a good thing!
But remember, now that they’re tangible, there
needs to be follow-through, and that’s where most of us hit stumbling blocks:
the goals aren’t going to manifest themselves- you have to help them along
their path to becoming reality!
Take Baby
Steps
Break up all of your long-term goals into
specific, shorter, bite-sized tasks, so they won’t be as daunting.
Were your goals and resolutions
from last year a little too gung-ho, or maybe a tad lofty?
Dreaming big has always been a personal mantra
of mine… but then I have to step back and remind myself that if I’m reaching
for the stars, I’m the one who needs to
build the spaceship!
There are many ways of
building your personal rocket to the stars- it starts with an idea, the idea
gets fleshed out, and then put into action. Know that any stage of this process might
have to go back to the drawing board. Taking baby steps is the key here, and so
is giving yourself some wiggle room- allow yourself the kindness of putting
your dreams into action without abandoning your plans if they don’t go exactly
the way you wanted them to. You can always re-evaluate your goals and go to
Plan B- or Plan S, if need be!
On a personal note, writing The Belly Dance Handbook was actually a
New Year’s Resolution that I made in 2007, for the New Year of 2008… and, of
course it didn’t come out that year! The
idea had been floating around in my head already for years, but that’s all it
was until I put it into action, and took the appropriate baby steps to get it done. 2008 was the year I started this blog, and it
was all about testing the waters and laying the frame work for actually writing- and finishing- my
book. The book took a good six and a
half years to finish, but I kept adding it onto my resolutions for
the next step, the next phase, the next year. As of January 11,
2015, it’s been out for a year!
Get Specific
Were your resolutions too vague? “Practice more”
is a great goal, but it’s kinda broad. Setting a more specific goal– and
allowing yourself to re-consider and re-set it as needed might be easier to
make that goal a reality.
For instance, instead of “Practice More”, you
might want to decide to drill on your own for at least fifteen minutes a day…only for the month of January. Put this
into your calendar, and just do it. It’s only thirty-one days, after all. If this idea is working well for you at the end of January, then by all means
continue it through February…and if it works well in February, continue it
through March.
Some things work better on paper than they do
in real life. If your goal is not working for you, don’t beat yourself up, just
re-define it. Don’t abandon it, amend it! Pick something do-able, something
that will work with your schedule.
You’re not going to get penalized for being unable to commit to your
original goal, you simply want to make it something you can do!
Maybe your goal needs to become “Practice
Fifteen Minutes A Day, Three Times A Week” or “Home Drilling Sunday Mornings,
10am-11am”. Perhaps an every day practice won’t work with your
life- it was a good idea, but many of us are not full time dancers; we’re
college students, moms, or career women in addition to being dancers. In order to fulfill your goals on practice,
make those sessions something special, not
drudgery, cause you’ll only wind up putting it off. Make your practice
like a hot date…with yourself! Soon, you’ll find out that your “relationship”
with dance is blooming, because it was allowed to grow naturally, over a period
of time.
Reward Yourself
I’m a damn champion at holding personal
contests (with prizes, of course) or dangling
a carrot in front of myself so I can get a reward for something I wasn’t all
that crazy about doing. Maybe I’m easily
duped, but it seems to work every time!
That’s how I finished The Belly Dance Handbook. I’d give myself a small reward every time I
completed a chapter…or an entire book edit.
I make “deals” with myself constantly on a
smaller level to help stick to my every day goals as well. Sometimes they’re pretty crazy, but that’s
how I move forward. My life is
constantly all about small challenges and rewards. I’m always holding self-imposed mini-challenges like “If I sew all the
elastic onto these ten sets of finger cymbals for my class, then I can get that
new MAC lipstick!” Or “ If I walk twenty minutes a day, every day,
after three months, I’m allowed to not walk
for a week!” But the thing is, by the time I had walked every day for three
months, it was a habit, not a burden…
and if I didn’t walk for a day, I actually missed it!
Believe In Yourself
New Years Resolutions and goals in general are
about figuring out- with your mind, body and soul- what is best for you as a
dancer. They’re optimistic and they
often seem far-fetched. But, as they
say, if you’re gonna dream, dream big!
Perhaps for 2015, your first
Resolution should believe in yourself as
a dancer. If you give yourself permission to do that, then everything else you
decide to achieve will fall into place easily.
I believe in you…you can do it!
#
Get a signed
copy of The Belly Dance Handbook: A
Companion For The Serious Dancer here: www.princessfarhana.com/shop.htm
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| Photo & Graphics: Maharet Hughes |
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