New Years is a time for goal setting – reflection of what has passed and a time to get inspired and motivated about what 2017 can bring for our futures in both life and in dance! But now it’s February. Have we been paying attention to our goals? How do we keep ourselves motivated? What do we do once we achieve these goals? These are all questions to ask ourselves as we set up our goals for the year.
For me, I like to make goals all the time! If you have ever seen my planner you will see daily reminders for the big picture projects I have on the go and all my small weekly goals and to dos. It freaks some people out – but that’s what works for me! I set goals for my business, my staff, my classes and dancers and my own personal life. One of my goals for the studio this year is to make our website’s blog an informative, interactive and reflective place for our Footprints Family. Using that as an example, I’m going to walk you through my goal setting process. If it works for you – that’s great! If it doesn’t, that’s okay too! If you take just one thing away from this and use it — then way to go you!
What Do I Want?
For some this is easy, for others we are still trying to decide if it would be better to be Cinderella or Ariel! What do I want? And more importantly, why do I want that? Do I just want this because someone else has it? Do I want this because I think it will be better for me? I think it’s incredibly important that our goals align with our personal values and our own personality. If your goal is to get up earlier in the morning but you work late and just love sleeping in, that’s not going to work for you! It has to make sense for you.
With our fabulous new website makeover, I knew that I wanted to have somewhere I could post the newsletters and other business-related information for our families. But then our web developer started my gears turning about what more the news section could be — post how-to videos for the kids on steps, write about your charity events, show off your staff, show your parents how dance can be included throughout their lives. Yes! Yes! Yes! This perfectly aligned with our “whole dance education” principle of the studio. This news section would further our Footprints Family’s dance education outside of the steps and outside of the studio. That’s what I want for our dance family. So let’s do it!
Okay, but how do I do it?
This is the tricky part. Often we know what we want but sometimes we aren’t sure how we can do it. But as long as we really want it, our motivation should inspire us to figure this question out.
Your action plan has to be realistic and time-centered. By when do you want to accomplish your goal? Is it possible for your goal to happen in that amount of time? Saying you want to lose 20 pounds in one week is just insane. But saying you want to lose 20 pounds over 3 months is doable in a healthy and realistic way.
For our blog, I knew I wanted it to be updated on a weekly basis. I knew that I would have to be one of the biggest contributors so I had to decide if I would make time in my schedule for it. Yes! It was important to me. It aligned with my values for the studio, so I was game! But what to write about?
I started brainstorming a list of topics, then of course, took the search over to Google and had a look at other studio blogs. I made myself a list of 30 topics. That was good enough to get started for “educational” posts. There would always be extra studio events, newsletters or performances I could write about as they happened. And of course, I wanted my staff to do some writing about their personal experiences in dance to share with the Footprints Family.
Ready. Set. Go!
It’s time to do it. We have made these expectations for ourselves but we all deal differently with expectations. Some of us are really great at doing the things we say we are going to do. Others need to be held accountable by an outside authority. Others are just not going to do it if someone tells us we should. Do you know how you respond to expectations?
If you don’t, or you aren’t sure, or you’re saying to yourself “well it depends on the situation” that’s okay! I was one of those “it depends on the situation” kind of people but then I read this really great book that I was referred to by Miss Laura. The book is Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin.
In this book Gretchen talks about all the different ways we can change our habits. She also puts forth her “Four Tendencies of Habit Change.” Her four tendencies include: Upholder (people who respond to inner and outer expectations easily), Obliger (people who respond to outer expectations), Questioners (people who respond to both inner and outer expectations only if they understand the logic) and Rebels (people who do what they want, when they want). You can take the quiz here to find out what you are! Once you know what you are it’s a lot easier to figure out a plan that works for you!
I am most certainly a Questioner with some Upholder tendencies. As you already read in this blog post, it was important to me to decide why I wanted to create a blog for the studio before I put any more effort into thinking about what or how I was going to do it. As an Upholder I have a tendency to be able to execute the things that I want to do. For me, it’s an issue of scheduling. So in order to master my schedule I am an avid planner user! I put reminders in to write and to post. And now as an extra measure of commitment to the plan I have created this post making all of its readers my outer accountability!
Enter doubt.
Okay but what if people don’t want to read it? What if people think what I’m writing is silly? What if people think I’m weird for doing it like this? The inner demons we hold will get down on us as we execute our plans. For me, this is the point where I go back to why I wanted to do it in the first place. If I really believe in my why then it’s easy for me to ignore those voices and keep going.
But maybe I don’t agree with that why anymore. Maybe no one is reading the blog and feeling connected to it. The purpose of educating outside the studio is not being fulfilled. Do I stop? I might. But maybe the why can change. The value we hold from our goals is completely, 100 per cent held by us.
So take charge! Figure out what you want, make a plan to make it happen and ignore the doubts! Stay reflective and resourceful throughout the process and you might just surprise yourself with what you are capable of when you challenge yourself.
