Journaling for Success as an Irish
Dancer: Part 2
Got Your Journal Yet?
So have you
bought a new journal yet and made those first entries? If you shuck your head “yes,” great, you are
well on the road to personal improvement. Congratulations!
If not, why
not? Go this week and buy a notebook. No
money or time? I understand the logic
but everyone has scrap paper around…..receipts, paper napkins from restaurants,
envelopes from all that junk mail flooding your mailbox, even the back of old
school reports can be used. So no more
excuses alright?
Many Positive Results to Be Expected
There are multitudes of ways that journaling
can aid you to shed some positive light on your goals. Begin by writing down your thoughts and
feelings about the events that happen in dance class, at a performance or at a
competition that concern you or make you feel especially good. If any “problems” arise with a fellow dancer,
teacher, adjudicator, or other person in your dancing world, then write about
them and the situation. This allows you
to let off steam in a nice way and to better understand the person(s) in
question ultimately improving your relationships overall. Happy relationships lead to happy dancers!
Likewise
remember to record compliments from teachers, fellow students, and any watching
spectators as well. I know from personal
experience how easily we forget the nice words people say to us each day. Yet these tiny bits of praise can blossom into
more confidence and give you assurance that your hard work pays off very
quickly.
What to Journal for Irish Dancers
Let’s revisit Catherine
Shaffer’s article “Journal This” in the November 2006 issue of Dance Magazine
and apply her journaling method to Irish dancers as we work on our own
personal improvement process. The method
includes four basic steps:
- “Create Awareness” by allowing yourself to do an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses.
To do this: Start by getting feedback from your teacher, a good friend,
or from the adjudicators comments if you compete. The
key here is to not look upon this feedback in a negative light. These people comprise the allies in your
improvement process and only want you to achieve your best. Ask for their
honest opinion and write down everything they say, whether you agree with their
words or not. Then later at home, take a
look at yourself in the mirror remembering their comments. Do a few dance steps. Make some notes about what you like and what
you do not like about how your dancing looks and feels. Be honest!
Were they right? Were they wrong?
Now eliminate the negatives and highlight your positives!
- “Take Action” by figuring out your goals and how you believe that you can achieve them.
To do this: Write down each area
that you want and can improve. If the
teachers and adjudicators want 180 degree turnout and your feet turn in
dramatically, be realistic as you may not be physically capable of accomplishing
this change. However, you can still work
on getting your feet as turned out as possible.
In reality, if not blessed with natural turnout, it often takes years of
working on stretching and strengthening week after week to achieve that degree
of turnout. Your plan of action does
not have to be perfect. Just be
prepared to adjust your goals and the time frame as needed to make the
necessary modifications along the way.
Another good illustration specifically for Irish dancers is the ability
to click your heels in hard shoe when “slicing.” The goal is to click your heels loudly and
strongly EVERY time you “slice or kick.” To achieve it, start out by working in
sets of 10. Each time you miss a click,
start over from one. Practice slice clicks until you can click 10 out
of 10 times in a row consistently. Keep
up your efforts even though it may take weeks to accomplish. Note your progress
in your diary.
- “Repetition” by sticking to your action plans as identified in step 2 and writing down your progress as you go along.
To
do this: In order to improve at
anything, you must do the action over and over again, the RIGHT way! However, repetition can prove harmful when
continually doing it the wrong way as you practice. You will just imbed the wrong technique
deeper and deeper. Remember to stop yourself immediately and
then attempt on correcting it the next time.
Eventually you will do it right. Practicing for 10 minutes a day endeavoring
to get it right is so much better than practicing 30 minutes the wrong way. Mark your progress each day or week by
keeping a chart. Quality is always
better than quantity.
- “Acknowledge Change” when you begin to notice improvements. Pat yourself on the back and write your accomplishments down in the journal.
To
do this: Do not give in to laziness or
discouragement and stop before you meet your goals. It takes time to change! So it is extremely important to mark the
little steps you make along the way. For
example write down, “I was able to click 4 or 10 times in my hard shoes today.” Then write “great job” to yourself and keep
on working on mastering 10 out 10 clicks!
My Own Success with Journaling
A few years ago
in 2004, I experienced a stage in my dancing where I had hit a pinnacle
point. I felt that no matter what I did
I could make no progress at all and believed wholeheartedly that I kept losing
ground instead. UGH!
As time and my
journal entries revealed, I was a “victim” of many external as well as internal
factors going on in my life at the time. Ultimately these negative factors affected me tremendously
every day even though “consciously” I was unaware of their existence. I decided to do a journal and see if it would
help me get past this impasse. Over the
next few months my words began to reveal so many of these hidden feelings
trapped inside. Tears flowed quite often
but with each drop I experienced a “release” as I let all those unimportant
emotions and pains dissipate. As time
passed, I began to see the actual physical changes in my dancing that I so
desired. Elation filled me as I noticed
each new difference or improvement. I
let each small success build into greater ones.
Now you see why
I think journaling is so important and why you should do it right away but
especially if you really want to improve yourself and shine.
Stay tuned for my next blog. I have not decided yet what it will be so I can keep you in suspense.
Enjoy the dance..
Sharon
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