In my last post, I talked about the value of breaking your big, overwhelming goals into bite-sized steps so that you can gradually work towards them and feel a sense of achievement when you reach each milestone along the way.
But what happens when instead of happily making progress toward your goal, you find yourself getting stuck on one step, unable to move forward, doubting yourself, and wanting to quit?
Have you ever tried goal-setting and it just didn’t work?
You made these big fancy goals to be able to do 32 fouette turns by Christmas, or to get a job at your favourite company… You set the goal, you believed in yourself, you waited…. but it never happened! Grrrr! Or worse, you worked hard-core at your goal for a week or 2, only to get so frustrated with yourself that you stopped trying.
So, you give up on goal-setting, because it all seems like a giant waste of time!
I know because I’ve been there.
I used to be an expert goal-setter, but a distastrous goal-achiever! That was until I learnt about the missing link between goal-setting and goal-achieving, which makes all the difference.
This week is National Body Image and Eating Disorders Awareness Week so today’s post focuses on a critical but little known trilogy of problems known as the “Female Athlete Triad”.
In a recent study of ‘exercising women’ in Australia, only 10% of participants could identify the 3 elements of the Female Athlete Triad.
Have you heard of it? …Most dancers haven’t. Yet, with our very active dance schedules, perfectionist tendencies and desire to fit into the industry’s slender mould, dancers are all at risk of this serious combination of problems, and need to be aware of it.
OK, enough suspense: What is the Female Athlete Triad?
I know it’s been a few weeks since the London 2012 Olympics closed, but it still feels very fresh in my head. Even as I waited to board my flight to Brisbane to see the Hamburg Ballet, the incoming flight was filled with Green & Gold tracksuit clad Aussie Olympians returning home. A medal was also proudly displayed right before my eyes!
I think of the dedication, discipline and precision of the athletes striving for the highest goals…
I think of the post-event interviews and the number of times I heard athletes say, “I stuck to my race plan and did the best I could on the day”. Even in the face of defeat, they had their self-talk in the right place and didn’t let the shadow-voice of perfectionism talk themselves into the ground… Much for dancers to learn from…
But, the main thing that has stuck in my head and that I wanted to write about is actually
Every dancer goes through times when you get stuck in a rut, you lose your motivation to dance, to improve, to try… Nothing seems to be working and you’re literally just going through the motions. This can be really frustrating and depressing, especially if your ballet master or teacher is also frustrated with you.
Play with a child under 5 years of age (or a cat or a puppy) and have a good laugh. When you start feeling down at ballet, picture the child or animal in your mind and remember how you felt. Allow that feeling to come out in your dancing.
I am from pink tights and leotards, from good toes and naughty toes and hair pulled tight with too many hairpins.
I am from the studio with the poster of feet in 5th – the one with the frayed leg-warmers and the worn through ballet shoes – whose limbs I remember as if they were my own.
