Goal Setting - The Why

This is the second post of our mini blog series about goal setting. The first post we talked about why we may want to set some goals for the new year. This post is going to focus on your ‘Why’.

The first thing we need to talk about is WHY you are doing the things you are doing. When I started pole in 2010 (yes, I feel like I’m a pole granny telling you pole stories of generations past), there was a small pool of moves - nothing like today. The big tricks were an Iron X or a Jade Split. As the industry grew, new things came out every other week. I remember seeing a Russian Split thinking, ‘You are out of your mind!’. While this was awesome to be a part of, it made me feel like as each new move came out, that I would naturally and eventually have to learn it (which is where the hilarious Rainbow Marchenko goal came from… oh, I guess I’m supposed to do that now?’. This obviously led to unhappiness as I felt I kept needing to move from trick to trick. Why was I doing this?

Take a moment and ask yourself, why am I coming to SPDS? What am I hoping to get out of this? Determining your ‘why’ will answer the ‘what’ and we can help you with the ‘how’. (Obviously, the ‘who’ is you and the ‘where’ is SPDS… I thought I should clarify just in case…).

Why are you coming? There are a variety of reasons:
- first and foremost - to have fun!
- learn something new
- get stronger both physically and emotionally
- express yourself
- gain confidence
- self-care
- (insert the other six thousand reasons here)

If you keep your ‘why’ at the forefront, it will guide you to where you want to go. For example, if your overriding goal is self-care, being extremely hard on yourself because you can’t get a particular move doesn’t really qualify as self care. Or if your goal is to feel vulnerable then taking the same class with the same people may not be guiding you in that direction. You may want to consider taking something completely different, perform at a showcase, etc.

Your Why will change over time but for now, think about the reason you want to be here and what you want to get out of it. If you’re a busy mom with 4 kids, maybe this one class a week is time for you to focus on you. Or if you’re a busy student, this could be a creative outlet from all your studying.

Determine your Why and next post we’ll talk about the What.

Stilettos and Sparkles,

-Brigitte