Goals vs. Dreams
You’re probably being too hard on yourself
Chasing the dreams of your younger self!
As dancers (or anyone really) it is a smart thing to do to set goals for yourself. I’m sure we have all experienced the new years scramble, where we are setting new goals and planning for all the amazing things we will do in the next year!
But… I’m sure we have all experienced at least once, a December where we look back at the year and feel disappointed in what we have accomplished or didn’t accomplish.
I had a dream dance company I wanted to work with. For the last few years, I did everything in my power to get the job. I attended their classes and summer intensives. I made contact with one of their artistic directors and sent them my reel and resume (they had asked me to!). I applied for every audition and eventually even flew across the country for an open call.
And…I never landed a job with them…
It’s an inspiring story right? Do you feel empowered? Well, neither did I. Falling into the spiral of,
“I”m not good enough,”
“I’ll never make it,”
“Why do I even try,”
felt like the natural option.
But I learned a lesson from all this, one that changed my entire outlook on my career, one that has left me feeling very much in control, in a career where I am anything but.
We have dreams and we have goals and sometimes we mix up which ones are which.
Now this is just my definition, but this distinction has made a huge difference in how I see progress. Dreams are our wishes and desires for our lives, but we cannot achieve them on our own. Dreams are getting hired in a professional dance company, or getting the lead in our high school’s spring play, or getting an agent, or booking a Broadway musical.
These are great dreams to have, but in order for these dreams to come true there are outside factors at play. What are the casting directors looking for, how many company contracts does the company offer every year, are you too tall or short to fit the broadway costumes. Sometimes we can beat ourselves up for not accomplishing our dreams, when really we don’t have any control over the outcomes. This can lead to loss of motivation, frustration, or even burn out.
So what do we do?
We set Goals instead.
Goals are things that we have 100% control over, meaning that we are the ones to decide if we succeed or not.
I’ll give you an example: Say your dream is to be in a Broadway musical. We can break this up into a series of goals that we have control over. You goals might look like, research Equity requirements, follow social media influencers who are on broadway or are audition for broadway (I fell into a rabbit hole of these influencers the other day, it was great), Contact any friends or mentors you know who are/were on broadway or ever auditioned, find where auditions are posted, look into agents, apply to agents, get a new headshot, film new videos for a dance reel, take a vocal lesson, order a pair of heels, take class in new heels, find a community theater near me, audition for the next community theater production, attend 3 open call auditions, go to dance class 3 times a week, listen to broadway performer podcasts while working out, and on and on and on. All of those goals could be achieved by you and you alone. No outside forces keeping you away (well sometimes life has its ways but….)
These are obviously just ideas, but there are so many goals that you can set and reasonably achieve that don’t require the stars to align perfectly.
Going back to my story about my dream dance company. Looking back it’s hard to be upset that I never got that job. I did everything I possibly could… and it simply didn’t work out. But that was not due to my lack of talent or effort. It didn’t happen, because that dream wasn’t really for me, but the small goals that I achieved in my pursuit of that dream have led me to some amazing oppertunities.