Jennifer Milner Bodies In:Motion

Congratulations to for being accepted into the ! would be so lucky to have you! Your fierce determination and artistry and talent are an unbeatable combination.

I'm so proud of you and the work you've done with .pavlova.ballet ! You never give up.

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New year, new you, right? That's what everyone says?

It’s a hard time of year for many people, and every January I come back to my Real Resolutions for Dancers post. I wrote it five years ago, but I still need to tell myself these things regularly. Read an excerpt below -

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It’s a new year, and with that always comes lists of well-meant promises to yourself. Clean page, fresh start, this year you’ll try harder/get better/master your pirouettes!

Put pen to paper, and a few minutes later you’ve got a gleaming master list of Dos and Don’ts that you are sure will help you make this The Year of Perfection. But what happens?

January starts off with daily references to The List, lots of effort - totally doable!

By February, the list is starting to make you feel guilty - it’s SO hard! - and by March you’re purposefully avoiding looking at It.

April swings around and it’s List? What List? You pretend to forget about it, pretend to forgive yourself, and swear that eight months from now you’ll write a new one and do better.

So this year, let’s ditch the guilt-inducing list. Dancers are already perfectionists and don’t need to be reminded of our constant failure to reach that unachievable goal of doing EVERYTHING right. I offer an alternative: try adopting these resolutions for yourself, and see what happens.

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To read the full post, click on the link in my bio (spoiler alert: there may or may not be lots of things aimed at better mental and physical health).

And I’d love to hear from you: do you make resolutions each year? Do they help, or add to perfectionism guilt? What sort of goals do you have for the year ahead?