Importance of Setting New Year Resolutions
This article was written by Lijing.
I used to be a huge advocate for goal setting and resolutions, but I realized how much it disconnected me from the present and prevented me from appreciating the ‘now’. Having experienced past setbacks made me question if I was being too unrealistic with my goals.
Setting resolutions could be scary because there is always that sense of ‘What if I fail...again?’. Not sure if many of you resonate with me on this, but the worry of failure and disappointment constantly lingers at the back of my mind and, more often than not, prevents me from daring to try.
Plans, however, do provide us with some semblance of hope and direction for the year. It gives us some clarity and allows us to envision what we could be if we just believe. To give us a headstart, we can reflect on what’s important to us in life. Thereafter, we can segment them into different areas of life, from relationships with others to self-development or achieving work-life balance, and set our goals in line with these areas.
It is important to note that having too many goals to achieve for the year might leave you feeling paralysed by the pressure of daily living. My advice would be to set lesser but achievable goals, while allowing some breathing space for life to surprise you.
We can also try to use helpful connectors like ‘so that’ and ‘because’, which allows us to set the intention of the goals. With the intention in mind, we might be more motivated to attain our goals, instead of simply having goals for the sake of it. It also helps us to filter the plans that are most relevant to us. Without that understanding, it is just an endless list of to-dos for the year.
I’ll start the ball rolling by sharing my personal dance goal set for 2021. I want to have fun and be more confident in freestyling so that I can train my creativity and practice dancing spontaneously, without overthinking or preplanning. Up till now, I enjoy moving to music but currently lack showmanship. When freestyling around people, I become stressed and am unable to just go with the flow and enjoy the music. For 2021, I will want to dance and vibe with a group of like-minded people confidently while I observing and learning how others interpret the same music.
Culture Circle battle 2018
LIJING’S GOAL-SETTING EXAMPLE
Goal: Have fun and be confident in freestyling
Reason: To be able to show my creativity in dancing spontaneously without overthinking or planning (Have fun).
Reason: To share that in-the-moment energy with a group of like-minded people that will expand my mind through exchanging dance moves (Have fun).
Reason: To have quality exchange of ideas by exhibiting showmanship (Be confident).
Steps to take:
Join an actual freestyle battle and workshops that allow mentoring and guidance.
Appreciate my own reaction to the music by understanding how I move, and also observing how others have their own unique way of moving to the same music.
Listen to various music and learn to identify different layers of the music on-the-go which allows better quality dance.
Practice keeping my gaze up and interacting with people during dance sessions to build showmanship.
We recently released a light-hearted video part of the “A Moment With Legacy” series on our YouTube channel on 7 new year resolutions for dancers, mainly focusing on taking care of our bodies. May this year be a year of positively enforcing new habits for all of us!
Now that you have heard from us, what is something that you would like to improve for this Ox-year of 2021? Do remember to share your New Year Resolutions with someone who would help to keep you accountable!