Dance Dance Resolution!
Happy New Year, Stygi-verse! I hope the holidays were kind to you, and you had a chance to rest, reflect, and recharge for another year of slaying whatever it is you wish to slay.
Obviously, linear time is an artificial construct and the idea of starting everything fresh on January 1st (for most of the Western world, at least) was sort of arbitrarily picked by Julius Caesar and a long-dead Pope, but the New Year still always feels full of possibility, no matter how cynical and full of cheese I am by December 31st. Whether you’re a faithful resolution maker or a fervent believer in the Planner That Will Change Everything, the little nudge from the new year to become an even better version of ourselves is enticing.
Full confession: I stopped making resolutions about a decade ago after realizing that my bold proclamations of daily exercise, mastering a belly flutter by June, or maintaining a spotless house not only made me anxious while I flailed around trying to meet my ridiculously high standards, they also made me feel like a failure when I inevitably fell short of meeting them. I’m guessing that’s not unique to me, as I can’t remember the last time another adult asked me what my resolutions were. I imagine most of us quiet quit new year goal setting a while ago.
I am not, by nature, an organized person. SMART goals make me cranky, and seeing my Type A friends create and complete gorgeous goal setting spreadsheets and reflection journals is amazing and intimidating and totally not my scene. That said, I’ve kind of come back around to not completely hating the idea of resolutions, but with a few tweaks to make them more attainable and ideally a little bit less fraught than the big, lofty goals I used to set. Hopefully some of the tips below will also resonate with some of you, especially if you’re kind of in the wilderness about your own dance practice or goals:
Resolutions Don’t Have to be Serious
I was sharing this with some friends last week and mentioned this was such a “duh” moment for me. It makes complete sense, but I had never considered it before. Resolutions that are actually enjoyable are easier to stick to, and resolutions that are silly are even more enjoyable to set and follow. In my non-dance life, one of my resolutions for 2026 is to make one new soup a month. In my dance life, I’ve decided to create one short combo per month using a different body part as the “leader” of the combo. (January is my right knee, February is my nose, etc.). Will this make me an incredible chef and dancer? Nah. But it’ll be a good way to get my ass in the studio and move more than I have been. Involving friends in your shenanigans can also make the resolution more enjoyable. I’m looking forward to forcing my friends to eat a bowl of weird soup and then learn 16 counts of a left-glute driven combo right after. (Dance buddies: consider yourselves warned)
Resolutions Aren’t Absolute, and they Don’t Have to Last All Year
Several years ago I set a resolution to run a mile every day. I even found a Mile a Day club to join, and they had a game where you could add money to a pool which would be split among anyone who actually ran at least a mile every day for the calendar year. If you didn’t log your mile, you were out of the game and out your money. On day 44 of faithfully running and logging my mile, I forgot to save my workout into my exercise tracker, and just like that my streak, my fifty bucks, and my motivation to keep running daily were all gone. I made a resolution that had too many contingencies, too long a time frame, and ultimately too high of stakes for me to recover and make the best of it when my plans went awry. My dance friends talk about dropping out of a certification program or a dance challenge because falling behind for a day or week caused them to lose out on money, incentives, and self-worth because they got sick or they had a bad work week.
If a resolution is too big to fail, it’s honestly probably going to fail pretty quickly. There is absolutely nothing wrong with setting lofty goals, but be mindful and honest with yourself about whether those goals or those programs give you grace for needing to take time off or change your plans. If the resolution’s timeline is too intense or it stretches over too long of a period it might not be a realistic resolution.
It is absolutely okay to set small goals over a short period of time. In fact, if you aren’t a naturally goal-oriented person it’s probably preferable. Additionally, it’s okay to do a dance challenge without following the social media post rules. It’s perfectly okay to take a dance certification for the joy of learning from a great teacher without also paying for the testing or even staying through the whole thing. Your time, your money, and your priorities are your own.
Quick Plug: If you’re looking for a certification program that allows you to work on your own schedule, through your own learning preferences, and with personal attention at every step, check out the Stygian Certification Program!
Align Your Resolutions with your Personal Values
My final and most important tip for you is to make sure your resolutions reflect your values. Figuring out what’s actually important to 2026 you vs. assigning importance to things for the sake of completing a resolution will go a long way toward actually sticking with those goals and feeling fulfilled in the process. Last year’s you may have had the time and energy to perform live twice a month. If this year’s you is more focused on family, getting healthy, or maybe just taking a mental break, then it’s completely okay if your dance goals reflect that. Dance will still be here in a year, even if you don’t do a single shimmy in the next twelve months. Sometimes just finding a dance community where the members share your values and you feel genuine belonging is enough to get you through those stretches when it’s hard to get up and move. The Stygian Collective has absolutely filled that need for connection to dance for me, even when I’ve been too busy or injured or worn out to actually dance much.
As we head full bore into 2026 (for better or worse), I hope you get the time to celebrate all the fantastic things you accomplished last year, especially if life was really hard and just getting out of bed was a victory some days. I hope you have a chance to set some silly goals, some meaningful goals, and that whatever you resolve for the new year, you have the support and encouragement from a badass group of dance friends. And just a friendly reminder - if you aren’t already a planner person, you probably don’t need one this year. It’s okay to just buy the cool pens and doodle instead.
Love, Cerridwen
