Do you want to be in the top 1 percent of dancers? If so, following an unconventional, yet effective set up principals will get you closer to your goal. Those principals are:
- Find the right teacher
- Work towards a specific goal
- Schedule just enough time to practice (no more)
- Surround yourself with people who make you feel good
- Expect challenges, and persevere in spite of them
1. Find the Right Dance Teacher
Have you ever had a teacher who made you feel like great and brought the best out of you? If so, find such a person and work with them on a regular basis in order to improve. Often times, especially in the dance industry, there are teachers who make you feel less confident, fat, ugly, and worse about your dancing. Avoid these people at all cost. By doing this, you will be able to avoid 90% of the self-doubt and self-pity that the majority of dancers fall into, and be able to learn in a safe, and productive environment. By doing this, you will be able to progress faster and feel better about yourself.
2. Work Towards a Specific Goal
Working towards a specific goal can accelerate your learning tenfold. If you have a competition in 4 weeks, the pressure to practice and improve is going to be increased which is going to cause you to grow and become better. Specific goals are critical to achieving success because without them, you will not be challenged to grow because there is no pressure to get better. If you have a specific goal, such as a competition, performance, or exhibition, you can be sure that you will improve and grow as a result of the pressure.
3. Schedule Appropriate Practice Time
Scheduling the right amount of practice time is another key element to success. With too much practice time, you will decrease your motivation, and waste time. With too little practice time, you will be unprepared. For most dance events, 4-6 weeks, is the appropriate amount of time to prepare, if you practice at least 2-3 times per week.
By creating this short, yet significantly long period of time to practice, you will nearly eliminate wasting time and increase your concentration and productivity.
4. Surround Yourself with Positive People
Surrounding yourself with people who make you feel good about your dancing is key to performing well. Dancing is a visual art, and people who feel good about their dancing appear more confident and are more fun to watch. As a result, people who feel good about their dancing are much more likely to win competitions, and lead long and
successful careers as dancers. If you are around a truly negative group of people who isolate you, put you down, or say mean things to you, find a better group of people to associate with, then to quit the old group, and join the better one. Doing this will dramatically increase your happiness and performance.
6. Expect Challenges, and Don’t Give Up!
Some days you are going to dance poorly and feel tired, unfocused, and not confident. Everyone feels insecure and lousy from time to time, and accepting this reality can help you to see it for what is; which is completely normal! Everyone has good days and bad days. They key to overcoming these challenges it to acknowledge the way you feel, tell someone you trust about it, and keep working hard in spite of it. Once you begin to work hard in spite of the way you feel, you will develop a confidence and level of personal integrity in yourself that will inspire you to work hard on the days you don’t feel like it. Enhancing your mental performance will result in an increased sense of control and confidence.
You can help put yourself in the top 1% of dancers by following these 5 principals. By practicing just one or two of the principals that really speaks to you, you can overcome self-imposed limitations and progress faster than you have in the past. Remember to accept yourself at whatever level you are, work hard to improve, and to expect and overcome obstacles along the way.
No Comment