Hello dancers and dance lovers!

I know… long time, no posts. I’m excited to get back to the blog this year after a lengthy hiatus while I focused more on my career and other projects, and I hope you’ll be along for the ride with me.

It’s the start of a new year, and I’m full of excitement and motivation about my goals for the year ahead. I’m someone who loves to dream and plan, so I’ve always enjoyed celebrating the new year. However I’m approaching my goals differently this year, so I wanted to share my approach, because I think that these insights might really help some of you, too.

We’re already a little way into January, so I’m sure you’ve chosen and set your goals already, and no matter what they are or whether or not you’ve already started taking action, these tips are going to help you to really get it done this year.

Atomic Habits

You’ve probably heard about the book Atomic Habits– it’s all over productivity YouTube, and I’ve mentioned it a few times before. If you haven’t already read the book, I highly recommend it, you won’t find a better guide to making your habits work for you. I’m following the advice laid out in the book, but I’m paying closer attention to a couple of key points that makes this different to the way I’ve used these methods in the past.

The idea of the book is that whilst many people have the same goals, not everyone achieves them. We look at successful people and assume their goals got them there, but we forget about the others that will have had the same goals and not succeeded. It’s ultimately your systems, rather than your goals, which determines your success over time- and that comes down to your daily actions, your habits.

The book is based on using our innate human habit-forming mechanism to our advantage. Author James Clear talks about the “habit loop”, which is cue – craving – response – reward. In order to make a new habit stick, we leverage each of these stages of the habit loop by:

1. Making it obvious
2. Making it attractive
3. Making it easy
4. Making it satisfying

And inversely, if you are wanting to break an existing unhelpful habit, you can do this by making it invisible; making it unattractive; making it hard; and making it unsatisfying.

Clear recommends starting with very small habits which accrue over long periods of time, habits which ideally at first can be completed in 2 minutes.

Having read this book a few times before, I’ve previously used the processes with some level of success. For example, I used it to build a daily meditation habit which is part of my morning routine to this day.

Where I’ve found it less helpful in the past is in trying to build my training habits. If you’re a sedentary person wanting to get fit, it makes sense to start with a tiny exercise habit like walking for 2 minutes and then building on that minute by minute. However, when you’re training seriously in dance as a student or professional (and this would be the same for sports athletes), then this isn’t a great way to approach your training. I wanted to be more consistent, but I wasn’t prepared to scale back my training that far to achieve it. And yet, when the amount of training is more (for example trying to add in a 30 minute floor barre or Pilates class to your morning routine), it really is harder to get it done every single day long enough for it to actually become a habit. I knew starting smaller would help me be more consistent long-term, but I didn’t want to sacrifice my training hours in the short-term to get there.

I decided to spend a couple of days before the new year re-reading the book properly with a fresh perspective, looking for a few gems of motivation more than anything, and a couple of things stood out to me that I didn’t pay such close attention to in the past.

Identity-Based Habit Formation

Firstly, there is the concept of identity-based habit formation.

My go-to method when setting goals is to list the main, big goal first. Then I’d break that down into sub-goals. Then I would break each sub-goal down into the smallest and most actionable steps I could. It’s the standard method you’ll probably see most recommended.

Yet that’s almost never worked for me- and it’s hard to even say why; I have a list of perfectly do-able tasks which should add up to achieving the bigger goals over time. Looking at the list, there are plenty of things on there I can accomplish in a day or even a few minutes, but only a handful of them get done. I’ve had some success with this method if I’m doing something that’s naturally very linear and timeline-based, like an application with certain requirements due by a non-negotiable deadline. Any other more general goal and it just never sticks.

Clear recommends approaching goals in an inverse way. Instead of beginning with the outcome, then approaching the processes, to finally achieve the identity associated with the goal, he recommends beginning with the identity at the core of the goal you want to achieve. Embodying this identity first makes it easier to complete the processes needed to then achieve the end goal.

I loved this concept the first time I read the book, but I never took the time to really embody that identity in the process of pursuing my goals. This is the first thing I made sure I did differently this time.

So, I’m going to share my list of goals, and how I used the above methods to design the habits to make them happen.

My 2025 Goals

I set 6 goals for the year, which is quite a lot, and more than I would usually choose or recommend. However there is a hierarchy of importance, with only 1-2 of my goals being of primary concern and the others more fun or of personal challenge. This will work for you whether you have just one goal or a few, but it’s generally better to have less.

My first goal is to reach a professional standard in ballet.

In explanation, I’m working as a freelance dancer mostly in contemporary dance. However I’d love to be able to take on some contracts for work on ballet projects and productions as well. This is a big and ambitious goal which might not be achieved in one year, but I want to get as far with it as I can, and it’s my most important goal for the list.

My second goal is to apply for a Master’s degree, specifically the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies course at Oxford University. I applied to this year before last, and wasn’t successful, so I waited out one application cycle, and now I think it would be a good time to apply again for 2026 entry. I will of course be looking at other courses and universities, but the content of this course in particular is the one that appeals most to me and my future career goals because it’s super inter-disciplinary.

Thirdly, I want to create work as a choreographer. This is something I’m already working on so I wanted to be sure to include it amongst my 2025 goals- I won’t expand here too much because I’m sure to share more soon.

My fourth goal is to relaunch Dare to Dance! I’ve wanted to get back to the blog for ages but the time hasn’t felt right until now. I really want to get back to posting regularly on the blog ,and also on socials, so I can reconnect with the community of dancers out there that share my values.

Fifth, I want to move up to the next levels of learning British Sign Language and Italian. Both languages I’ve been learning by myself at home, but I’d love to take some proper classes or tutoring. In the meantime I need to at least push myself to practice conversationally with others.

Lastly I want to overcome anxiety and improve my mental wellness. I started suffering with health anxiety a couple of years ago after a health scare, and pops up every now and again and can lead to a more general anxiety, too. It stops me living my life to the fullest. I already have some good tools for working on it, but I struggle to do them consistently unless the anxiety is really bad, so I want to make sure I work on it before it gets to that point!

So those are my 2025 goals.

Goal Identities

Now, once I had that list, I thought about the identity associated with each of those points. It was important for me to write statements which I feel are already true. I can repeat the affirmation “I am a professional ballet dancer”, but because I’m not one, I can feel a sense of resistance within myself when I say that. However “I am becoming a professional ballet dancer” is something that feels true and has a sense of power and excitement to it.

The identity-based statements for my other goals are; “I am an academic”, “I am a choreographer”, “I am the author of a successful blog”, “I am someone with an ability and passion for languages”, and “I am committed to my mental wellness”. I’m making sure to think these statements as I go through my day, and especially as I make different choices. As Clear mentions in the book, each choice and action is like a vote for the identity you’re trying to embody (or a vote against it).

If it feels good for you to use an identity statement based on your future self, as a way to get into that mindset of it already being accomplished, then that’s great. For me it feels much more powerful to use statements that I could already consider to be true, but also align with the identity associated with my goals. I think try both and you’ll know which feels more right.

Choosing your habits

Next, I wrote a long list of habits I might want to focus on this year which relate to those goals (or even the sub-goals that are inherent within those bigger goals). These are things like;

• Meal planning & online food shopping every week
• Daily targeted exercises
• Keeping a training diary and notes on corrections
• Keep a notebook of choreography ideas
• Study languages every day
• Breathing exercises
• Journaling
• Stretching

And a lot more- I wrote a long list at first to get lots of ideas flowing. Then I went through and I highlighted some of the habits that I wanted to start with. I chose habits that;

1. Related to my most important goals
2. Were the most impactful towards my goals
3. Would be easy to start off with

Then I shortlisted those further to choose a handful of habits to focus my efforts on to begin with. As they get easier, I can continue to up-level those habits and/or add in new ones.

I chose:

• Going to ballet class
• Keeping a training diary
• Reading every day
• Writing a new blog post every week
• Breathing exercises

Choosing the Right Habit

This is another point at which I took a different tack to how I’ve approached habit formation in the past, and that’s reviewing whether the habit I’ve chosen is the right habit to start off with– and I think this is crucial to success.

I know that for my goal of getting to a professional level in ballet, going to more classes is the number one thing I need to be doing, but that goal is much too big to start with and needs to be scaled back to a small habit at first.

I tried doing this before, when I was trying to make a habit of training at home. I had a home barre in our old flat, but I struggled so much with making myself train. I scaled the habit back to just doing pliés; if I wanted to continue I could, but the initial habit was to at least just do pliés.

However that didn’t work- and looking back it’s because it’s the wrong habit. Here’s why:

Firstly, I felt deep down that just doing pliés each day wasn’t enough and so even though I said that pliés would be my habit, secretly I was aiming for a full barre. Secondly, even though I set a specific time of day to do the habit, it wasn’t attached to anything else that consistently happened each day (e.g. a morning routine or a mealtime), so really it ended up being at a different time every day and never felt like an automatic part of a daily routine. Thirdly, if barre was the habit I wanted to get to, pliés wasn’t actually the first step. The first step would have been something like getting changed- then I needed to clear the space and get water and choose a video to follow and set it up. Then I had the question of should I be warming up? Just doing pliés didn’t require warming up, but I would usually warm up properly for a full class or barre. Starting the barre exercises actually came quite far into the sequence of events.

Now my circumstances are a little different; I’ve moved to the countryside, and getting to classes is a bit harder than before. I did well with training at home over the summer, but now I know I need to be getting to class in-person so that I can do full classes and get corrections and feedback. But I can’t really scale back “going to class” to a tiny habit; going to class means getting the train into London and I’m already fully committed before I decide to head out the door. I’m not going all the way to London and paying for class and a train ticket to do pliés then leave. I also don’t need to make it a habit because I don’t struggle to get myself to class- I absolutely love it, it’s just logistically harder now that we’re further away. I realised the habit I need to change isn’t DOING class- it’s BOOKING class. If I can take the time to sit down and figure out which classes I can get to in my ever-changing freelance schedule, and most importantly how I’m going to get there, then the rest of the process happens without fail.

So “going to class” becomes; “I will book my ballet classes and travel for the week ahead every Sunday when I get home from walking the dog, at my desk using my laptop”. It’s added on to my existing Sunday routine, and once those classes and trains are booked and paid for, I’m fully committed.

Leveraging the Rules of Habit Change

Then we get back to the rules of habit change; make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy and make it satisfying. I thought of every single thing I could that would make this habit as easy and enjoyable as possible.

• Stick a list of my weekly classes up by my desk where I can see it, and replace it with a new list each week
• Schedule time for booking classes in my Google Calendar, and add a notification (I added a phone reminder as well)
• Pair booking my classes with having my cup of coffee
• Keep a list of my preferred classes with dates and times so I can choose from the list instead of trawling the website of different studios trying to find a class that matches my availability
• Keep my card details on hand, so I don’t have to get up and rummage for my purse when it’s time to pay
• Tick off the habit on a habit tracker
• Set an intention to take into my classes for the week for more inspiration

The true list is even longer than this, so I won’t list every single item, but just know that it pays to be as thorough and prepared as possible.

Set Yourself Up for Success

There’s one more thing I did differently this time that I think is important: Once I had my list of habits and all the things I could do to make those habits successful, I went ahead and did everything I could to set myself up ahead of time. I downloaded a habit tracker app for the habits I wanted to keep track of on-the-go, and made paper ones myself for those I wanted to keep visible on the wall, I made a Pinterest board for inspiration, I wrote out post-it note reminders, and scheduled reminders and notifications in my phone and my Google calendar, I bought the things I needed to make my life easier; basically any and every action you can take, even if it seems barely significant, to make sure everything is ready when you want to start your habits.

That being said, I wouldn’t delay starting if you don’t have everything ready- it’s better to get started than spend too long planning and preparing. Just take one day to get everything lined up for your best chance of success.

I’ll finish by running through how I set out my other habits, to give you some inspiration!

My Habit Plan

“Keeping a training diary” became “When I finish a training session, before I get changed, I will write in my notes app the activity, 1 thing that went well, and 1 thing to improve, in my stretching or changing place”.

Here’s how I put that plan in place:

• Put a reminder note on my post-workout snack, or on top of my clothes that I’ll be changing back into
• Have my post-workout snack or drink at the same time
• Put on some cute and cozy warm-ups
• Pin the training diary list to the top of my notes app, and put the notes app on the first page of my homescreen
• Number each point “1,2,3” so I don’t have to write it out every time
• Tick it off on a habit tracker app

“Reading every day” became “Every night when I get into bed, I will read at least 1 page of my book”

• When I take my glass of water through to the bedroom (part of my existing bedtime routine), I will take my book through and put it on my pillow
• Pair reading time with a nice bedtime beverage
• I bought a longer iPad charging cable, because sometimes I read ebooks, and that way I can still read if the battery gets low
• I made a habit tracker and a reading log with a progress bar for each book to colour in as I read more of it

“Writing a new blog post every week” became “Every day that I am home Monday-Saturday, when I have finished eating my lunch, I will log in to my website admin page and blog Notion page, on my laptop, at my desk”

Although this habit doesn’t involve publishing a new post every week, or even writing at all, it’s a starting point to create the habit of going to my desk most days with the intention of working on my blog in some way. If I want to keep working on it, I can, if not, at least it’s still staying in my mind. And you’re reading this post, so it’s obviously working so far!

• Put a list of ideas for blog posts up by my desk where I can see it
• Schedule blogging time into Google Calendar for after lunch & set a notification
• Have a nice drink when I sit to work (can you tell I’m really motivated by beverages?)
• Put on my earphones & favourite ASMR sounds (this is my ritual when I work and study and it gets me locked in every time)
• I created a shortcut directly to those pages for my desktop
• Once I’m done, follow it with something I really want to do at my desk like studying or crafts (I genuinely like to study for fun, which I know is strange but you have to do you)

“Breathing exercises” became “Each time I sit down to eat a meal, I will do 5 sets of breathing exercises before eating, at the table”

The meal isn’t relevant to the habit, it’s just a good thing to anchor this habit to, because I have 3 meals every single day, so adding this habit to mealtimes means it gets done more times each day.

• I’ve added a post-it that says “breathe!” to my place mat, which has been the single most effective tool in making this habit happen (it’s the one I forget about easiest), and another in my lunch box for when I’m out
• I make it pleasant by enjoying the smells of my food while I breathe, and I get to enjoy my food straight after
• Stick to a very simple exercise: breathe in for 5 seconds, hold for another 5, out for 8.
• Tick it off on the habit tracker on my app.

Just like that, I’ve started creating habits which relate to my goals. Booking my classes each week means I’m definitely getting to class, which the most important element to achieving my goal of reaching a professional level in ballet and aligns with the identity “I am becoming a professional ballet dancer”. So does keeping a training diary after each session (whether that’s a ballet class, a gym session or Pilates at home). When I read each night, I am developing a reading habit, which is essential to doing a Master’s degree, and is a vote for the identity “I am an academic”. When I do my breathing exercises 4 times a day, I help regulate my nervous system and make a vote for the identity “I am committed to my mental wellness”.

Once these habits are firmly established, I’ll take them up to the next level, and/or add some new ones (I’m aware I didn’t include a new habit for choreography or for languages yet).

I really hope these tips have helped you, and that seeing how I’ve planned my habits in relation to my goals has helped you to think about ways you can do that for your individual goals, too.

I really enjoyed this process so much, so if you’re stuck for ideas on which habits to start in relation to your goals, or how to make certain habits more obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying, leave a comment or even send me an email, I’d be more than happy to give you some ideas!

So welcome back to the blog, and keep dancing!

Jessica x