Am I On Track?

This was a topic I brought up with my coach in our last session. I wanted to get her feedback on whether I was on track for achieving my primary goal of winning 'So You Think You Can Dance Australia - 2011'.

Firstly, I was asked to identify the criteria that I would be judged on by the judges.  As I was in the competition last year, I was able to have a pretty clear idea of what they were looking for.  I also remembered some of the feedback from the judges which I would act upon such as 'dancing to your strengths' (~Matt Lee) .

Once these criteria were identified, I had to rate my competency from 0-10 in each area.  It's a simple concept but very helpful in gauging where you are at, where you want to be, and then formulating a MAP on how to get there.

For the time being, i'm keeping my battle plan to myself, but I wanted to share with you a way to check whether you are on track - Identify Your Success Criteria, Gauge Yourself on Where You Are and Where You Want To Be, and then make a MAP of how to get there.

Happy Travelling!!!

"Never Tell Me What You Can't Do!"

"Never tell me what you can't do!"
 - My coach's coach to her during training.

After her 40th, my coach decided to shed the 40lbs she gained after having children, and took up triathlon.  She completed ten marathons, six half and two full Ironman competitions, participated in the World Championships Duathlon and finished third in the National Championships Half Ironman all in the course of six years.

My coach and I were discussing how to act when experiencing an injury which reduces the amount of weight you can lift or exercises you can do.  Her coach's statement encapsulates the attitude one must take:

"Never tell me what you can't do!"

So the practical application of this is that you focus on the exercises you can do, if you can't use your arms, use your legs, if you can't do strength training, do cardio training.  It all needs to be done, and the gains you make in other areas will be a blessing in disguise once you return to your full capabilities and have that extra body awareness, extra technique and skills which you worked on when you had to.  

Take on the champions mentality - what do you do when things try to get you down, you find a way to keep going.  

Shout out to my G.P.A. Warriors 'We Don't Stop!'.  

Patience

Alrighty, well this is turning out to be an interesting week, I hurt my arm/shoulder/back towards the end of last week and have some sleepless nights because of it.  On Saturday morning I nearly spewed it was so sore, I couldn't even take of my singlet and my hands were trembling. Ouch! So this week, classes are back on again and I have to develop an approach that will allow me to stay active and provide the best conditions for healing.  So i'm thinking i'm just gonna run in the evening and not do gym too much.  I talked to someone who said salt may help in recovery.  But rest mainly.  Got some mild pain killers (aspirin) for this evening so I can have a little uninterrupted sleep which will be good.  The person I spoke to also did a little test to see if there was any nerve damage and there didn't seem to be, just a muscle sprain/tear thing which he said was good because it will repair.  So i'm gonna have a hot shower and stay positive and look at what this is teaching me - in boxing tonight I had to stay calm, even though I wanted to whack the shizz out of the pads, and just focus on technique and timing - it was good and I knew that when I could box again, I would be able to do it with so much more specificity and knowledge.  So that's all good.  And tonight in breakdance, I just focussed on top rocking and worked on a lil routine which was cool.  Time for a shower!!!

Standards

When I was living in New York, I had a gym teacher who pushed me further than I had gone before - she just expected me to do a martial arts/boxing class, followed by a spin class, followed by a substantial run. Since then the concept of doing 3 back to back classes at a gym has seemed normal to me. And so I would do this at my beloved gym in Australia, and now in England I am also doing 3 classes back to back 3 nights a week. So this has become my standard. I also remember when I was training in dance at University and we trained from 8:30am - 6:00pm every day. This was also the norm. The idea of being physically active all day does not seem odd to me, in fact it is something I have been trying to make happen for a while!

So I think it is important to remember, whilst you can congratulate yourself for achieving things, still remember the level you truly wish you were at, then look at the people who have achieved that sort of level, and see what they have had to do to get there - or even if you want to keep it more personal, where, specifically, do you want to be at, and how, specifically, are you going to get there and what standards are you going to have to have to ensure you do?

I love to surround myself with people at a higher standard, if possible the highest, as I think this rubs off and influences how you carry yourself and the standards you will set for yourself.

I've been influenced in this way by teachers and now I also exercise this influence on others, that of getting the best out of them and making sure they commit to a higher standard on a regular basis in order to achieve their goals.

It also operates on the micro-scale, within a process, for example a dance class - what is the standard of your concentration?  At what point are you going to give up, or are you going to keep going until you get what you have aimed for?  People often have more resources than they thought, I experience it myself, and I see others, when given a specific task and a bit of encouragement, exceed what they thought they could do. Their technique gets better, their strength improves, and they develop a better habit of attacking a problem - the attitude of don't give up.

Current abilities, or perceived abilities, are not fixed, they move according to your standards and expectations and what you believe in.  I encourage you to find something you want to achieve and move towards it - hold your standards high and follow through.  It's great fun.

Motivators

As part of my coaching I completed a questionnaire that produced a series of 'Personality Profile' reports.

One of the key insights I gained from these reports was the concept of 'Motivators'.  It highlighted things I was motivated by.  This concept is supported by strategies within my coaching program of defining the 'purpose' of why you want to achieve what you want to achieve.  Having an earth moving 'purpose' or 'motivator' is very important in achieving goals and sustaining consistency in your actions and mental approach.

It is this that you can refer to when times get tough, to keep you going, and get you out of your head and into taking action.

Recently, I have been searching for a job in my new home town of Guildford.  I'd been getting a bit despondent about the lack of progress I perceived I had been making.  Firstly, my expectations may have been a bit high, I had expected to get a job in a week or two but none had been forthcoming.  Nevertheless, financial obligations and just the desire to be more active during the day and have more things to do, made me determined to get a job.

But this wasn't enough.  I started to feel why was it important that I have a job.  As mentioned in my last post 'It Matters', I decided to amplify the significance of what I was attempting to do.  My motivation became the thought of having a child, a baby girl, and having her at home waiting for me to get a job.  For me this was not just a fantasy, but it seemed to be in a sense closer to the truth of the matter.  If I didn't prove myself now, if I didn't get my act together now and achieve the things I wanted to do, how was I going to provide for my family in the future. This became the significance that I needed to truly motivate me and make me aware of what was actually at stake.

I went into a store shortly afterwards that had a vacancy sign on its door.  I said I wanted to make contact and get more details of the position. After a brief discussion, I stated 'I will work for free until you give me the job.  I am keen'.  I left feeling strong and confident, emailed them my resume, and later that day received a response asking me to come back for an interview.  In all of my actions in this process, my motivator was my little girl.  I felt strong and focussed and I knew what I had to do.

This is the significance of having strong motivators.  It is not a fantasy, but rather really looking at how your actions today will shape your tomorrow.  I went out that morning hungry for a job and have now positioned myself well to succeed in this.

It Matters

Strength

Every morning I wake up and do what is called my 'Hour of Power'. It starts with a laugh in bed then sit ups, pushups, and chinups. Then I go for a walk. During the first half of the walk I focus on gratitude - all the things I am grateful for every day. This is accompanied by a breathing exercise that boosts energy and concentration whilst doing a specific tapping exercise with my fingers. The second part of the walk focusses on what I want to achieve during the day and who I am. I recite these things and move towards incantations where I speak as if I have achieved the things I wanted. I return every morning strong and ready for the day.

Last week, it started becoming hard to keep up this routine - emotional reactions to my not yet having a job were making me feel despondent. I examined this, why I wasn't doing my daily routine. I started to look at what my motivators were for doing this routine and realised that I had started to think that it was no longer as important in comparison to other things.

I realised I had to change this view. This routine, this habit, matters. My revised view was that each morning that I do this, it is an epic undertaking - it is not a small set of exercises that have no effect on anything, it completely shapes my body, mind and spirit every day so that I can contribute my maximum potential to this world.

At the same time, I realised that getting into the right 'state' is a very important exercise. It matters. When you are positive and strong your productivity, energy and creativity go right up.

So the major lesson from this is that it matters - whatever you committ to doing on a regular basis in the pursuit of personal development, continue it. It matters. 1 push up a day matters, and it matters that you do it every day.

My challenge to you is that you take on this belief, that each step you take towards your goals matters. Enlarge its significance if it ever falls into doubt. It matters.

Bollywood - The Dance of The Gods!

I can honestly say I don't think I have felt such joy in a dance class as I do in the Bollywood dance classes I am taking at the moment.  Quite simply, it is a dance of joy. People smile and move gracefully and move to the music - I LOVE IT! So I'm very grateful to have come across this form of dance, this teacher, and the people in the class.

I've learnt 4 main hand gestures and a variety of very user friendly movements that accentuate rythyms in the music and just feel right. I also like the innate spiritual aspect to the dance, when I do some of the movements I feel respect, gratitude, contentment, peace and that unnameable sense of being in the right place. It also really feels like a dance in it's truest sense, like an art form, inspired by things of old but immediately accessible. I love seeing people smile in the class, it really is quite a profound experience each time.

Aight, that's it for this post, in the meantime 'Shut Up and Bounce'!



Sent from my iPhone

Ballet

I started an Advanced Ballet class last week, not that my standard is currently that high but I know that in order to progress to an advanced standard I need to be surrounded by people at an advanced standard and receive instruction at this level so I can challenge myself.  As I have got back into the routine of doing ballet, I can feel that the training I have done over the past few years has paid off and I do have some foundation, a lot of it is to do with body awareness and how to hold yourself - but again holding your body to a higher standard and demanding of it that you do all you can do to exercise control and strength is a key element in making progress.

I was very pleased the other evening in a lower grade class when a teacher asked me to repeat a movement in front of the class.  She said 'don't worry, it's not a bad thing'.  I was quite shocked and didn't know what she was going to say, but I did the movement and she said to the rest of the class something to the effect of 'try and make it look like this!'.  I was so happy and at the same time surprised!! But after this comment I had even greater pleasure in doing the movement because I had had some positive re-enforcement and acknowledgment.  Bring on the pygmalion effect!!!

I really appreciate my advanced ballet teacher - she has an unconventional way of teaching, but she is SOOOO spot on.  She allows you to really connect with your body awareness and FEEL things, she directs your attention to the important parts of the exercise 'relax, it's just the bar!', your anatomy, and your way of moving, so that you can really feel the correct way to move.  I saw her walk past a student and with a slight upwards brush of her hand correct her posture incredibly.  She did this with me as well, and I felt myself just slip into the right position.  I haven't really been given specific instruction in proper port de bras and placement of the head and I will at some stage ask her for this so I can know what I am aiming to do rather that just feel like I am failing at things i'm not even sure how to do!

So that's my post on ballet - I guess my action items on this are to ask the teacher for some specific instruction and things I can practise in relation to my port de bras and positioning of the head.  I don't know what training she received but I just feel it is right, the perfect combination of technical excellence with integrated body awareness and I really feel this will have powerful effects on performance and my abilities and style of dancing.  I feel it lets out my character and strength and fulfils the highest technical requirements of ballet as well.

Like my coach, you can see there is no place for excuses for not doing something with correct technique or not trying something again - 'I don't have a very good plie', 'I'm dizzy' - they are not reasons to stop trying or more importantly believe that this is a fixed state, or something that shouldn't be pushed through.  After my plie comment whilst being instructed during changement de pied, and her ignoring that like it was almost an unrelated topic, I watched my plie in the mirror go larger and and my knees move out a lot more correctly and fluidly - suddenly i had a plie and preparation for changement that i was almost a little proud of!  So there is the power of a thought, a moment, a process and a good teacher!

In this class i also noticed all my pirouettes coming in to shape faster and with control and strength - I can feel all the core and strength training I have been doing and can now apply this when i am pulling myself up.  I could feel the strength and exactitude in some of my movement and I was very excited and inspired by this.  I know I can go a lot further but I am excited by this process and where I am now, it all feels very good and that I am handling it well and being grateful for what I can feel now in my dance.

Welcome...

Welcome to my blog which will cover my journey from now to the 'So You Think You Can Dance Australia' auditions in October 2010.

In this blog I will post some of the strategies I am using to achieve my goals, inspirational content, and insights I gain along the way.

For starters, I have a coach for the year who I speak to every 10 days to make sure I am accountable for the goals I have set myself. I've only spoken to her a couple of times so far but already can tell what the benefits are.

Already i know, and my path was leading me here before coaching, but coaching is supporting this, that there are no excuses - if you set out on a path and decide to do something you must do it. Coaching makes this very clear - what do you want to achieve this week, with the follow up - did you do what you said you were going to do. It makes it very clear and sets up some good patterns of behaviour.

That's all for this post, life's good in my new home here in Guildford, England - I have Contemporary and Breakdance on Monday nights, Ballet on Tuesday's, Advanced Ballet and Bollywood on Wednesday's and Hip Hop on Thursday's.

Another lesson I have learnt is that you can always learn something from everyone, so even some of my earlier classes which I thought were a bit basic and unstructured, I told myself stick it out and see what you can learn here - and I did learn things that i may not have learnt any where else.

I will have to get to some more advanced and challenging classes though so that I am 'competing' at the level I will have to compete at when SYTYCD comes around again. I really loved the experience in 2009 - seeing what the level was, knowing I wasn't there yet but could be, and having enormous respect for the people who got to that level before me.

In fact, just before I left that competition, I was driving to the Gold Coast for the last round of auditions that I didn't get through and this song came on. I dedicate this to them. Keep Going People!!