Sometimes the only thing standing in the way of your progress is you. The sooner we all understand that, the sooner we can course correct and find the most effective path through your dance journey.
Here are 5 Ways we can sap our own progress, and what to do to avoid it in the future.
Imagine if the standard wedding tradition was mixed up. Instead of a honeymoon to create momentum going into a marriage, it was the bachelor party.
What kind of success rate would marriages like that have?
Now, let's take this back to your dancing. You decide to participate in a dance event (showcase, Dance-O-Rama, or your Wedding Dance), and then, after lots of hard work, extra practice, progress, and your eventual performance - you take a break.
As in the weird marriage and bachelor party scenario, dancers will routinely sabotage their progress by taking a break after a big dance event. Even worse is they wonder why they aren't progressing.
We all plan to ramp things up the week of an event. It's how we are wired.
The best kept secret for those that make heaps of progress is to ramp things up after the event. Like a Honeymoon for newly married people, taking extra lessons, working with coaches, and staying on the attack after the event, will ensure that you are building on your progress - instead of constantly re-building it.
For more ideas on this, Read: The Day After Your Dance Event
A hobby like Ballroom Dancing has a lot of moving parts. It combines the right and left sides of the brain - so it's safe to say you could, at any point, find something wrong with some part of it. Whether it was an artistic assessment, "you just aren't feeling the music", or a more objective remark, "you're looking down" - there is always an opportunity to find something wrong with your dance partner.
But the best partners understand that you don't need to capitalize on every opportunity to be critical.
We aren't saying whether it is or isn't correct - let's just say it all is. But using a tactful, big picture view of the scenario is much more conducive to productive practices that are fun and functioning, than painfully accurate practices that grind to a halt.
Have crystal clear practice schedule that is built for safe productivity.
This might mean that you are doing movements independently, focusing on specific and predefined parts of the body, to eliminate as much subjectivity when it comes to the goal of the time together.
For more ideas on this, read: 7 Things Your Dance Partner Wants to Hear You Say
One of the true killers of progress is knowing everything. After all, when you do - progress is a moot point. Those with inflated egos find it difficult to make progress because they, unknowingly, have already set the cap on what is possible.
The ensuing moves aren't any more productive either.
In some cases this pours over into added criticism of partners (see #2), or seeking out different teachers with qualifications, seemingly, more consistent with their abilitiy. The reality is:
The greatest teacher in the world can't improve someone by force. It's only those who are open to learning that make consistent progress.
In some cases, you will need to discover that your cup is full the hard way.
There is no getting around the power of self discovery, especially when it comes to areas of our own improvement where we may be turning a blind eye.
So, you can wait to hit the wall, or you can take a minute to take inventory of how open minded you have been. Here's a hint - if you act like you need the information all the time, then you may just learn a lot in the process.
For more ideas on this, read: 3 Business Books That Can Improve Your Ballroom Dancing
Whether you're watching a football game, the Oscars, or playing a (sort of) friendly game of Monopoly - you've heard it, or felt it.
The conspiracy theory.
"They just won because..." is, unfortunately, a popular catchphrase in any type of competition, and ballroom dancing is no exception.
An internal locus of control means that you believe you control your own success. It's on your shoulders and you take full accountability for the path you are on.
An external locus of control means that you believe the world around you will determine your success. That would mean that your success is completely in the hands of the judges, the room, the costumes you're wearing, the tan you're using, the teacher you're dancing with...
Hopefully, you get the point.
Your dancing can, and should, outshine anything any external factors. You are in control of your outcome because it is based, first and foremost, on being the best version of you.
For more ideas on this, read: Are You A Ballroom Dance Conspiracy Theorist?
Being self aware is great, but being self aware with criteria that skews towards self deprecation is not healthy. One of the silent killers of your dance progress, momentum, and overall joy is making quiet, but negative, self assessments.
The best people to help guide you in those assessments is your group of teachers. Think of them like progress detectives.
Anyone can walk onto a crime scene and make a general comment about what probably happened, but it takes a team of experts to understand exactly how that happened, and what steps must be taken to solve the crime.
As a dancer, you can easily feel like you've blown it, but it takes a teacher to pinpoint the trace elements of progress, and to pinpoint the clues to helping you develop the skill until it feels better to you.
Share! Share! Share! Instead of biting your lip, kicking the wall, or cursing your footwork with dark magic - share what you are feeling with your teacher.
"I'm really mad that I couldn't get that section right, what can I do to get that down better?", or "I feel like I'm not getting the Argentine Tango, is that true or am I just being a little crazy?".
Sharing these as questions, instead of processing them internally as fact, can be the difference between a fun hobby, and ending something for all the wrong reasons.
For more ideas on this, read: Are You a Victim of Your Own Dance Criticism?
Ever have one of those moments where you step on your own toe? It hurts on a number of levels. It's not just the physical pain, but it's our ego being deflated, or our brain wondering how we could be so foolish to do such a thing.
As painful as it is, the self discovery of those moments will prompt you like nothing else to make improvements.
The same can be said for the list above. They are all painful, self inflicted wounds that can help us as much as they might hurt.
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