Friday, October 25, 2013

Journaling for Success as an Irish Dancer: Part 2




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:

  1.  “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! 
 
  1. “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. 

  1. “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.


  1. “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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