Stop doing this if you really want to improve your freestyle

One of the things I have struggled with in my dance journey is that I would usually start something, but I wouldn't go all the way because to me, I was still dancing, still training to become a better dancer, so I wouldn't see that I was going in circles rather than moving forward. 

The goal is not only to bring awareness about it but identify what prevents us from going all the way.

The moment we understand what's preventing us is the moment it will become easier for us to start training in a certain way and stick to it. 

They are three things that come to my mind. 

1 WE ARE CONSTANTLY CHASING NEW INFORMATION 

When you start dancing, you've got this beginner mindset. You just do whatever you can, moving, dancing. The more you start practising, the more you are getting knowledge and gathering information, and we can quickly become addicted to this process we are training, and whenever we feel like we need to progress, we look for new information to push us to the next level instead of working more on what we have and master it.

Very often, what brings us to the next level, is practising the same thing over and over. But for many of us, this is a boring strategy because we already know the techniques, and the information, so we think that to push our dance to the next level, we need to look for the new. 

You can start looking for new pieces of information that are aligned with your current interest. 

Example: You want to improve your footwork. Look for information that is aligned with your interest which is, at the moment, footwork. It will be easier for you not to get overwhelmed with all the information you are getting because every piece is aligned with your goal. Therefore you are not all over the place. 

By doing this, you can actually analyse and study yourself to identify your strengths and weaknesses in footwork. You will create more self-awareness about your footwork and will push it to the next level. 

It will give you a better idea of what you already have in hand and how you can work with that. 

When you start thinking this way, it becomes easier for you to remain focus and go all the way in your interest. 

Looking for new information is not always the solution. Let's dive into number 2.

2 KNOWLEDGE VERSUS EXPERTISE 

Many dancers know a little bit about a lot of subjects. The problem with that is you end up knowing many things, but you are not specialised in something. In the long term, this can be an issue. 

Let's do an exercise quickly. If I ask you who is your favourite dancer, you probably have one in your mind; now, if I ask you why you like this person. You will start thinking about it and give me reasons but it will usually be one or two reasons. Not more than that. 

Why? Because this dancer understands his identity, and even though he has different knowledge, he knows to focus on one thing that will make him an expert at this specific thing and master it instead of being good at a lot of different things. 

This will help you remain focused on your path and go all the way. The problem with getting too much information is that you don't feel like you are not making progress because you are still training and practising, but you are actually moving into circles. 

That's a big trap, and most of the time, we don't realise it. At some point in my dance journey, I was in this trap, and I had to step back and analyse what I was doing and started to be frustrated about why I was not getting the results when I was putting in the work. Then I realised that I had some things to change because most of the time, I had started something but never went all the way, which led me to the third one. 

3 DESIGN A SIMPLE PATH 

It's extremely important to always ask yourself how to make things as simple as possible to implement them regularly because the power is in consistency. 

Every single thing that you want to achieve as a dancer lies in 3 simple processes. 

The first process is to identify the purpose; once you identify it, the second process is to design a simple path, and the third is to commit to it.

If you can have those three, you will achieve your goal because you have a clear vision of where you want to go, you create a simple path that you can replicate and implement regularly, and you commit to it. 

It's not how can I make this easy but how can I make it as simple as possible. If you simplify this path, it will be easier for you to remain on this path and go all the way. 

Your primary goal is to come up with a system that will work for you until it becomes second nature to you.