If you had told me back in January just how quickly this year would have flown by, I would have struggled to believe you. Seemingly only a few weeks ago I was writing about a plethora of summer pole events, for life only to have swiftly fast-forward to end of year celebrations. 2024 has been a jam-packed year for our pole and aerial community – with each twelve months that passes, our incredible art form continues to grow and induct more and more enthusiasts into our fold.
As we reach the end of the year, often we start to think about all things ‘new’ – my mind wanders straight to that age old phrase ‘new year, new me’. Temptation to focus on nothing but newness is a double edged sword. Yes, for goal-setting, it’s important to look forward, and I truly do believe that only dwelling on events that have passed is a bit of a waste of energy – after all, they’ve already happened whether we like it or not. But we can also learn from things that have already passed. History often repeats itself, and it’s worth looking at why that might be.
In order to really effectively set your sights on a brand new year of achieving your pole and aerial goals, it’s important to factor in some reflection. This isn’t just about looking at successes or obstacles you’ve faced in the months that have passed. Break these moments down; why did things happen as they did, how could you have approached things differently, were there external factors that came into play, what would you do if faced with the same situation now. The list goes on.
Here’s an example for you. At the start of this year, I was pretty determined to get my Eagle on the pole. For those of you that don’t know, this is a pretty intense contortion
move, it takes a lot of practice and you need a good range of flexibility in both shoulders and legs in order to achieve it. I really neglected this goal for a lot of the year, and randomly the other day whilst I was at the studio I gave it another go to little success. I was a bit frustrated by this, but honestly, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I hadn’t actually touched this move for months at a time, I hadn’t been practicing any regressions in order to build up to the move, and although I do train my flexibility I really hadn’t been targeting the necessary areas in order to take on that super-bendy position.
But, that being said – there’s a lesson to be learnt here too. Getting frustrated with myself isn’t actually worth it. Yes, I didn’t get my Eagle because basically, I didn’t even try to. But why wasn’t I training for it? Well, this year I got my Bird of Paradise. That took up an awful lot of my time, and I competed in several competitions which means I didn’t have as much free exploration in my training, and I also took on more teaching opportunities at my studio so more of my pole focus rightfully landed on things such as lesson planning. Was my lack of Eagle down to laziness, or actually, was I never really going to have the time to do it in the first place?
A really nice part of reflection is that it allows you to delve into not just what happened, but why it happened – and as a part of that, can help you to understand that maybe your ‘failures’ aren’t actually that at all. And actually, nestled within those self-perceived bumps in the road, there may be some success stories that you hadn’t even taken the time to notice. The fact I achieved my Bird of Paradise is really exciting – it’s a big, highly sought after move, and I got it through hard work and persistence. For me, this has been my busiest and most successful competitive year yet. I’m so very happy to have more teaching opportunities at my home studio, teaching is my dream job. So yes, I’m entering 2025 still Eagle-less. But put side-by-
side with those other awesome achievements, it’s starting to look a little bit less like a failure and more like something that was inevitably not going to happen. And ultimately, I’m actually quite unphased by that.
By taking the time to dissect each of my goals and obstacles throughout 2024, this also helps me to look forward to what I want to be achieving in 2025. In order to effectively set a goal, it’s important to consider what is actually within your scope of ability – so basically, is it actually realistic for you to do so. For example, if you’re an instructor, your goal may be to level up your teaching abilities. How will you do this? It may not be realistic for you to approach this by spending more time training – and also, would this actually help you? Becoming a stronger aerialist doesn’t actually equal improving your teaching abilities. A great way to take your teaching to the next level is through taking a course. XPERT has a tonne of online and face to face course options for you to explore. By choosing to dedicate some time to your learning, you will become a better instructor – and the great thing about completing further learning is it’s all quantifiable. There’s something so special about standing there with a certificate at the end of your training, thinking ‘I did that’.
My over-aching point is in order to effectively look forward, we must look back. It doesn’t matter who you are as you’re reading this – my message is to students, instructors, studio owners and professionals alike. Take a little time over this festive period, particularly given that a lot of businesses start operating on restricted hours in this time, to really consider what you have achieved over this last twelve months. And please, do this exercise with kind eyes. We do pole and aerial because we love this wonderful artform and it is so important to focus on why we keep coming back for more.