How to Build a Sustainable Practice Habit

Now that I have retired, my goal is to make sure that my work stays available to the next generation of dancers. So we are offering the entire Belly Dance Geek® catalog with "pay what you want" pricing here on Gumroad. Please note that all of our offerings are fully DIY, and do not include personal support.

- Nadira

Have you tried to establish a steady dance practice in the past – but couldn’t keep it up?

Most of the techniques we try work just fine – but only in the short term.

Willpower-based advice like “just do it”, and panic-based techniques like external deadlines (prepping for an important show, etc.) motivate you for a little while, but fizzle out when the urgency fades.

(That’s a big part of why New Years Resolutions fail so often.)

To build a long-term practice habit, you need to take a sustainable approach.

• One that focuses on habit, not willpower.
• One that respects the realities of your life and priorities – but still finds a way.
• One that’s flexible enough to deal with injuries, vacations, other obligations – and the simple fact that things change over time.

How to Build a Sustainable Practice Habit

Stop “feast or famine practicing”, and make steady practice a part of your life

If you’re ready to create your own rock-solid practice habit, join me for this 9-week DIY course.

Each week includes:

1. Gradually increasing practice targets: We’ll ramp up from 2 minutes per day to 60 minutes (or less, depending on your goals)
2. Practice support assignments: These will teach you the concepts and tools that support a steady practice, and help you make good use of them. 
   

You will:

• Gradually Ramp Up Your Dance Practice We’ll begin with a hilariously short daily practice of just 2 minutes per day (yes, really!), then gradually work up to an hour per day. (You can also choose a lower amount, depending on your needs and goals.)
• Find Your Real Motivation Get rid of the “shoulds” that make practice a chore and find your “wants”
• Understand the Role of Willpower and Habit You’ll learn about how habits work, how to create habits to support your dance practice, and how to spend your willpower wisely.
• Reduce Friction Even with a strong habit in place, there are lots of tiny things that can get in the way of your practice. So we’ll start thinking like engineers: observing and optimizing. You’ll pay attention to the things in your environment, daily schedule, and mindset that make it easier or harder to practice. And you’ll experiment with small tweaks to make practice more likely to happen.
• Prepare for Problems You’ll create plans for dealing with big curve balls like injury, illness, and vacations as well as day-to-day impediments like interruptions, boundaries.
• Make the Most Of Your Practice Time Our goal is to create a life-long practice habit, so showing up consistently is more important that what you actually do. But once your habit takes root, you’ll want to get as much benefit out of your practice time as possible. So we’ll talk about how to set short-term goals, and translate them into a practical practice plan. We’ll discuss structuring your practice session, deliberate practice, how to use DVDs effectively, and how to avoid procrasti-practice.
• Learn How to Keep Working When You Feel Like Giving Up You'll learn to recognize how frustration, fatigue, and boredom affect your practice, and practice strategies to help you “ride the wave” until your motivation returns. (This is NOT a “just do it” approach.)
• Set Long-Term Goals Once you have a steady practice habit and know how to make the most of your practice time, you’ll want to make sure your practice time is aligned with your goals.
• Take Off the Training Wheels As you reach the end of the course, you’ll create a plan for how to maintain your practice habit - for the rest of your dance journey.

By the end of the 9 weeks, you’ll have a steady practice habit, the know-how to spend it wisely, the tools to stay on track, and strategies to get back on track when you stray. 

(You're also welcome to move though the course more slowly, but don't go any faster! You'll need the full 9 weeks to cement a reliable practice habit.)

No Cookie Cutters Here!

This program is based on my own practice transformation back in 2014. But that doesn’t mean you have to create a cookie-cutter copy of my practice. Your life and goals are different from mine, so your practice should be too.

Instead, I reverse-engineered the process I followed to create my practice habit. So you’ll ask the same questions, and follow the same steps.

But you’ll find what works for you.

Please Note: This is a fully DIY course

Since Nadira is retired, we are no longer able to offer personal support or discussion groups for our courses. We have revamped the materials to be fully DIY, but if you do have questions, we encourage you to reach out to your teacher or dance colleagues.