Four key questions to consider in your career transition

I meet many dancers who are at various places across the spectrum below with regard to their career transition:

All are great positions to be – from having no idea – where a myriad of possibilities are open for you to explore, to having some idea – meaning you can start testing out and exploring in more depth, to having so many ideas you don’t know which to choose – meaning you have a luxury of choice and can apply the next level of criteria (whether they be earning potential, speed of training or sheer fulfilment factor.)

I’d encourage every dancer, no matter where you are on this spectrum, to consider four key questions:

1.      What are you most passionate about in life?

2.      What are you particularly good at, or skilled in, beyond dance? Could be teaching, talking to people, understanding the science behind movement, or composing amazing camera shots, could be cooking nutritional foods.

3.      What does the world need, or need more of? From more abstract answers such as ‘compassion and patience’ or ‘fighters for justice’, or more job specific such as ‘great primary teachers’ you will have a view – and there are sites you can check to see which jobs/functions are massively in growth.

4.      What you can be paid for – now?

It can help to draw 4 overlapping circles to help you explore this, to get to the Japanese ‘sweet spot’of ikigai, which roughly translates as ‘reason for being,’ where all four areas intersect.

In a perfect world, we’d all find the sweet spot in the middle, and going through this process can help you to identify a number of different options for your future.

For more information, or help exploring your next steps, book an appointment with a DCD coach by emailing dancers@thedcd.org.uk or find out more here.