Setting dance goals Podcast

Setting goals in life is important but do you set goals in dancing too? Most people don’t even think about why they are even dancing – Let alone make a concrete goal to work towards. In this podcast I discuss why you should have a goal and also give examples of the types of goals one can thrive for.


[Transcript]

Hello and welcome to today’s Passion4Dancing Podcast. My name is Leon from Passion4Dancing.com where we teach people how to dance online and today, we’re talking all about goals.

Do you have a goal for your dancing? Well, if you don’t, you’re probably missing out. Here’s the thing. In almost every aspect of life, people tell us that if we want to achieve something, it’s better to set a goal.

So for example if you want to lose weight, making it as specific as possible will help. So you could say something like, “I want to lose 30 pounds in the next three months for example,” right? This is very specific. It has got numbers in there, right? Thirty pounds in the next three months and now that you have that goal, you can go ahead and make a plan and break down the steps along the way of how you’re going to get to losing that weight, those 30 pounds in 3 months.

For example you’re going to say, “I want to go to the gym three times a week and I want to take two dance classes with Leon,” or something like that. It doesn’t have to be with Leon. It can be with any dance teacher in your local area.

Anyway, so the point is this applies to all aspects of life. So why not to dance, right? I see so many people just take a dance class and never defining for themselves why they’re doing it and they’re just drifting along and they’re not improving and a lot of them quit very quickly because they kind of find it pointless. They’re not sure why they’re doing it, right?

I think it’s better to set a goal and I’m not saying that the goal has to be something extreme, right? There are people who compete in dancing, right? So their goal is to go and compete in dancing. There are people who just want to have fun. They want to learn dancing for social reasons and that’s a goal as well, right? Then there are people who want to exercise through dancing because they find that running on a treadmill is too boring, which it can be, right? Starting at a blank wall.

So you have all these different goals that you can choose from. It doesn’t matter what it is. It’s just important to choose one. Yes? Wedding couples, they have a specific goal normally. They come in to prepare for their first dance. That’s a goal as well, right? There are people who will have showcases of their studios, so they’re preparing with their teacher or show a number of choreography for a certain date. That’s a goal. Just choose a goal and the more specific it is, the better.

Now let’s talk a little bit about why you want to choose a goal. Well, here’s the thing. You’re going to improve 10X if you have a goal versus not having a goal. OK? For example, if your goal is to be able go out into a competition in three months, you better believe you’re going to be in the studio practicing. You better believe you’re going to be disciplined enough to show up to your private lessons consistently and practicing on top of that at home. You know, visualizing your routines in your head because you know you’ve got that date coming up and it’s very specific. You got to be ready, right?

So people who usually compete get better much faster than people who don’t because the people who don’t again normally don’t have a goal, right? Now let’s say you’re a social dancer and let’s say your goal is to be able to master seven moves in three dances and be able to do them flawlessly at the next social dance party. By the way, that’s a great example of a very specific goal. So rather than saying, oh, I just want to be socially – I just want to dance for fun social, you – now you have a specific goal. You want to learn seven moves and three dances and be able to do them in the next party, which is coming up let’s say in two months. You want to be able to do them really well and be able to lead your partner really well through those seven moves in those dances.

Now you have some time until that party. So what are you going to do? You’re going to start making the specific steps in order to get to your goal, right? Now that you have a defined goal, you can actually figure out how many group classes I should take per week. Maybe I need some private lessons. I need to watch some of Passion4Dancing’s videos. Maybe. Maybe you need to find a partner to practice with.

You see, just by having a goal, it’s going to make you think about how you’re going to achieve it. You’re going to treat things a little bit differently. Yes, it’s a little bit more strategic. But doing something well always requires a little bit of a plan and a little bit of a strategy, don’t you think?

Think about anything you’ve ever achieved in your life. You probably did plan out or have some thought into how you’re going to get whatever it is that you’ve got. It’s the same thing with dancing. Yes? Even if you just want to be able to master beautiful hip action, that can be a goal as well. You still need to maybe schedule some practices in order to get that. Maybe take some lessons to figure out what is the correct hip action for me to even practice.

All those are good goals and again I want to say that it doesn’t matter what your goal is. It’s just important to choose one.

All right. Well, thank you guys for joining me today. I hope this made sense for you. I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear your thoughts. Let me know what you think and let me know what is your goal. Yes? Do you have one? If so, leave a comment below. Let us know what is your goal with dancing. I would love for us to all read each other’s comments and figure out what people’s goals are.

All right. Thank you very much for joining me today and we will see you guys next time.

[End of transcript]

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