How to manifest your dream career in 5 steps

Hello, dancers! If you're here, it's because you share one big dream with me and many others: the dream of being paid to dance - turning this incredible passion into your career. Whether it's on cruise ships, in a musical, or touring with the biggest pop stars, you know deep down this isn't just a fantasy—it's where you're meant to be.

But, here's the thing: making that leap from dreaming to actually living that dream feels like a mountain, right? How do you actually make it happen?

Well, you're not alone in this. Many dancers feel exactly the same way, stuck in a loop of 'how do I get there from here?' But, guess what? People do make it. All the time. Which means, yes, you can too. It's all about channelling your mindset, and today, I'm going to show you how in 5 clear steps. Grab a drink, a pen and paper because we’re going to work through this together.

Hi, my name is Hayley and I coach dancers, like you, in fitness, nutrition and mindset to empower them to chase their dream careers. After a fulfilling career as a professional dancer, I now teach you the tools I learned along the way to help me unlock my own success. If that sounds exciting to you, I would love you to subscribe so you never miss another video.

So, here are the 5 steps to manifest your dream job as a dancer.

Step 1: Gain Clarity on What You Want

First up, clarity. What is it that you actually want? And I mean, ‘really’ want. Is it living in New York and performing on Broadway? Is it living out of a tour bus and performing with Jennifer Lopez? Or do you want to travel the world and perform on cruise ships? Define it. Know it.

I want you to do a massive brainstorm in your journal about what you truly  want. Create a vision board, put things up on your bedroom walls that are going to inspire you and remind you every single day why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Here are some journal prompts I want you to complete:

“If money was not a factor, what would I want to spend my days doing?”

“What type of lifestyle do I want to be living?”

“If I knew I couldn’t fail, what career would I go for and what would I want out of life?”

That last answer is going to need to be the goal you chase. You have to just go for it. It’s a crime to your future self if you don’t, I am telling you, you will regret not trying.

Step 2: Goal Setting

Now that we know what we want, we're setting goals.

People set goals all the time, every year we’ve got a new year’s resolution, but only 8% of people actually follow through and achieve their goals. Why? Because we’re not putting our goals into actions, and we’re not making changes in our lives to actually see a different result. So, let’s set some goals we can actually achieve.

First, Where do you see yourself in the future? What type of life do you want for yourself? Write down your:

• 1 year vision

• 5 year vision

• 10 year vision

Next, Strategy journaling.

• What's not working?

• The barriers:

• What daily & weekly habits are getting in your way?

Identifying what's not working and the barriers you currently face will help you gain clarity on your goal and habit setting.

Outcome goals: These are goals that happen as a result of your actions overtime, combined with opportunity. It is an outcome of the action you’ve taken and opportunity that has arisen. An outcome goal for us could be getting a cruise ship contract - because sure you can go to as many dance auditions as you want, but you’re not going to be able to hire yourself on a ship, someone has to hire you.

Actionable Goals: Are goals that you CAN actually take action on, and do all by yourself. These are goals that you can tick off today, this week, this month or even this year, that will help you achieve your outcome goal. This could be going to every audition in your city that year, getting your CV updated, or getting new headshots. These actions are all steps along the way you need to take, to get that big outcome goal.

Habits: Daily and weekly habits are super super important foundations that you need to stay consistent on in order to get that big dream outcome goal. Are you taking steps every single day towards your dream? Your outcome goal can seem so hard to envision sometimes, but taking action on small habits every single day can help you keep that dream alive and fresh. A constant reminder of why you’re doing what you’re doing. Taking class every week, hitting the gym 5 times a week, daily journaling, hitting your daily protein goal - all examples of habits that will help a dancer succeed. To be successful in what you do, consistency and discipline is essential. Habits over a long period of time change people, so stay consistent on habits that will help you become the person you need to reach your ultimate goal.

Pause the video if you need and make a list of your outcome goals (1-2 goals), actionable goals (4-8 goals), and your habits (4-8 goals). Now, open your diary or planner.

Find a time in your week to set your repetitive habits, and then if you’ve got some free time over the next few weeks start to pencil in your actionable goals.

But, in my opinion, habits should always come first and be priority - this is your foundation. There’s no point starting to tackle your actionable goals until you set your foundations first. One of your weekly habits should be a self check in on your progress, as reviewing your progress is important to staying on track.

Step 3: Visualize

Imagine your life while living that dream. What does a day in your life look like? From the moment you wake up, to the food you eat, to how you spend your free time. Visualization is a powerful tool that aligns your mind with your goals.

A noteworthy story of visualisation comes from the Australian sailing team in 1983. At that time, the only team to ever win the America Cup, was America. 132 years in a row. For this season, the Australian team were keen to take the title. The coach at the time recorded a guided narration of the race, including obstacles and every step along the way that they needed to take, to take home gold. The team listened to that narration twice daily for months on end, and by the time the competition came around, they couldn’t imagine not winning. They’d mentally rehearsed winning the race so many times over in their head that they truly believed that they could do it.

Research on visualization and performance has shown that incorporating mental imagery techniques can enhance skill development and improve performance outcomes in various domains. Studies have demonstrated that engaging in mental rehearsal activates neural pathways similar to physical practice, leading to improved technique, confidence, and reduced anxiety. While visualization is not a substitute for physical training, combining mental and physical practice has been found to be the most effective approach for performance improvement.

So, try visualisation before your next audition. Start visualising daily the life you want to be living, and try to incorporate that into your daily routine. That’s going to seriously help you believe that life is possible for you.

Step 4: Take Action

Don’t just take action, but take massive action. Massive action means consistently acting towards your goals - no matter what.

Failure is only re-direction towards the path that will actually lead you towards your goal.

Nothing in your life will change without ACTION.

How badly do you want your goal? Are you willing to go down all of these different roads which lead to failure until you eventually go down the path that leads to your success?

You don't need to know exactly how your goal will be achieved - just try every option until you get there.

Don’t sit around and procrastinate about what the next right move is, because it doesn’t matter if it’s not, you just need to keep taking action.

If you want to be in the 3% of people that gets to work as a dancer, you have to take more action than 97% of dancers. You can't do the same as every other dancer, and expect a different result from them.

Have a think - are you going above and beyond? Truly?

Is there anything that is distracting you right now? Because massive action takes full focus. You can't be distracted at all.

Give it everything you have got for as long as it takes until you get it.

Step 5: Consistency

The most important step.

Being consistent in your ambitions and showing that dedication to yourself is life changing. Most people won't go there, and if you just hold on, there’s no way you won’t get there.

Be ready to step into your job tomorrow.

If you got a call to say you've got the job and are starting tomorrow.. would you be ready? Are you mentally and physically ready to take it on?

If you feel like you're not fit enough at the moment to take on the job... make sure you are.

If you are studying something else at the moment or preoccupied in a way that you wouldn't be able to accept a job offer anyway... you need to rethink your commitments.

If you're the type of person to stand at the back of the room in a class, but keep telling yourself you will stand in the front when you get the job... start standing in the front.

Be a perfect candidate, ready to step into the job as you are right now, and that is when it will happen for you.

Continue to take action, visualize, and strive for your dream, day in and day out. Your perseverance will pay off.

While pursuing a dance career, doubt and imposter syndrome can creep in, making you feel like an outsider looking in. But: if you can dream it, it's because it's possible. Your dreams are valid, achievable, and waiting for you to reach out and grab them.

So, let's break through those barriers together. Keep pushing. Because one day, sooner than you think, you'll wake up living that dream.

NUTRITION BASICS FOR DANCERS

Picture this: you’ve just found out you have an audition next week. You are feeling bloated, you haven’t been training much, you think you’ve been eating too much, and your mindset is all over the place. Panic starts to set in! What’s the quickest way I can lose weight and look my best for the audition? Easy - just don’t eat.

So, you start every day for the next week on the treadmill, trying to burn off all those snacks you had last week.You do a really good job at restricting your calories as much as possible, and only binge a few times. Then, the audition comes around. You still hate the way your body looks. But the worst part, is that your audition is a complete flop. You had no focus, you couldn’t remember the choreography, you were falling out of turns and you rolled your ankle on a jump. You’re better than this, why did you perform so badly? Because you’ve got no food in your belly!

Let’s span out, and look over at other physical disciplines. Sprinters, marathon runners, swimmers, basketball players, footy players… they’re all athletes just like us. Do you think they have the same eating habits that we have? No, they take their nutrition very seriously and make sure they eat enough every single day to optimise their performance. They fuel their body like an athlete.

And, they don’t focus on the way their bodies look as a goal, their goal is to perform better. But, their bodies, as a side effect, look pretty damn good, let's be honest. The elite nature of their job means their overall body fat is pretty lean.

You don’t see other athletes starving themselves. So why do dancers? This is important for us to look into. Why do so many dancers suffer from body dysmorphia? Why are so many dancers chronic under-eaters? Why do we want to punish our bodies?

A lot of it has to do with our mentors we grew up with. And it’s not their fault. Generations on generations of dancers, all feeding each other the same toxic advice that leads to all kinds of nasty side effects. I want to change this. If I can help one dancer in this video my work here is done.

If we change our mindset around our identity, and see ourselves as athletic artists, then everything changes. We can’t be depriving our bodies, because our bodies need fuel to thrive.

The constant looking in mirrors, being compared to others, having to fit into certain moulds.. But that’s such an outside in approach. What if we flipped it, and looked from the inside out? What if we focused on what our body could do athletically, and is your body functioning optimally as a dancer?

If not, there are steps you can take to get there (Like signing up for my training program), and that will result in you getting the results you’re chasing down the completely wrong path. You can’t get there from there.

Let’s look at the basics of nutrition:

In terms of energy, a basic way to look at it is - Calories in vs. calories out

Calories in- all the food that you eat.

Calories out- is all the calories you burn.

But there’s much more than just 1 way to burn calories.

BMR- Basal Metabolic Rate

NEAT- Non exercise activity thermogenesis

PA- Physical activity

TEF - Thermic effect of food.

All this together is TDEE

Why is it important to know this? It’s important that you know you’re always burning calories, not just when you’re exercising,

When I was 18 and about 7 years prior to studying nutrition, I learnt about calories for the first time, and I thought “oh wow, so I’ll just make sure whatever calories I burn in my exercise I eat less of, then I’ll lose weight”... which is so wrong, because I wasn’t taking into account all the other ways my body burns calories. I thought it was a really good idea to eat like 700 calories a day.

I thought I was the only genius in the world to figure it out. I lasted about 2 days, and then I had the worst headache I’ve ever had, and quickly realised this was not the way to go about it. If you don’t know this, you could be significantly undereating as you don’t realise how much you’re burning. The more you can get educated as a dancer, the more ahead you’ll be. Learn from my mistakes!

When you are in a caloric deficit, you start to move less, as your body wants to save as much energy as possible. Your NEAT in particular is suffering.

If you’re exhausted, you’re probably not gonna wanna get up off the couch to clean the kitchen. You’re probably gonna ask your partner or mum to get your drink for you because you don’t want to get up. These are all the effects of your body trying to tell you “hey, we need to reserve as much energy as possible, I’m working overtime here, give me a second to catch up”.

And this, in turn, will cause you to burn less calories than normal, which ultimately is going against your goal of weight loss. Instead, if you chose to prioritise athletic performance, yes of course you will have days where you don’t want to get off the couch, but you’ll be fuelling your body with enough calories, which will in turn help you recover, get you up and moving faster, and keep you more consistent overall.

So, how many calories should you be eating as a dancer? You should be on maintenance calories. This means you’re not trying to gain weight, you’re not trying to lose weight. You’re eating for optimal athletic performance only.

Let’s calculate what our maintenance calories are.

First up your BMR. There are several formulas to calculate BMR; this is a pretty common one:

Mifflin-St Jeor Equation

For men:

BMR=10×weight in kg+6.25×height in cm−5×age in years+5

For women:

BMR=10×weight in kg+6.25×height in cm−5×age in years−161

Next, we calculate your activity level:

• Sedentary (little or no exercise): BMR × 1.2

• Lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): BMR × 1.375

• Moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): BMR × 1.55

• Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): BMR × 1.725

• Extra active (very hard exercise/physical job & exercise 2x/day): BMR × 1.9

Finally, to find your Total Daily Energy Expenditure, take your BMR and multiply it by the activity factor:

TDEE=BMR×Activity Factor

Or honestly you can just look up a calorie calculator online, they tend to be pretty accurate most of the time. But I will reiterate, I am recommending maintenance calories only here, calorie counting is not for everyone, and it can be best to be working with a coach if you have a specific goal in mind.

Once you’ve found your maintenance calories, what do we do now? We look at the macro break down of the food we eat.

There are 3 macronutrients every food (except alcohol) falls under. Each of these play a unique and essential role in supporting your performance and overall health.

First up, carbohydrates. Carbs are our bodys primary and preferred source of energy, particularly for the brain and during exercise.

Proteins are made up of amino acids, which are the building blocks for most structures and functions of the body.

Fats are very important for overall health, they play a central role in maintaining healthy organs, and promote healthy cell function. They’re a concentrated source of energy, containing 9 calories per gram in comparison to protein and carbs which both have 4 calories per gram. So we don’t need as much fat as the other 2 due its density but it’s important to always incorporate nonetheless.

To split the macros for optimal performance, we want about 50-65% carbs, 20-35% fats, and we want our protein to be around 1.6-2.4g per kg of bodyweight per day.

But, again, be mindful that all this info is very individual, even for each individual dancer, based on a number of factors. Take it all with a grain of salt. I do recommend that if you're really serious about this get in touch with a coach.

Blog Post Title Three

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.