How to Regain Self-Confidence After a Failed Dance Audition

The road to becoming a pro cheerleader is not an easy one to take. Aside from the preparation you’ll need to do and the challenges you’ll face, you may also experience a loss of confidence if you don’t make your dream squad.

This experience can make you give up on your dreams to be an arena dancer. Why? Because you’ll lose the motivation to audition again in the future. If you haven’t made it this year, there’s always the next opportunity.

In the meantime, as you wait for a reaudition, work on regaining or keeping your self-confidence up. Here are ways on how to do that.

1. Personify your inner critic

Even successful people criticize themselves after a setback. It’s normal as it’s one of our survival instincts. However, letting our inner critic loose and get the best of us can lower our self-confidence. To prevent this from happening, give your inner critic a name and image.

This way, you’ll find it easy to listen to them objectively without having their words affecting your motivation.

2. Provide context

Understand that you’re defined by your behavior and not by your outcomes. For example, you must proactively think that failing a dance audition provides plenty of invaluable learning experiences instead of labeling yourself as a failed dancer.

3. Be an objective observer

Dealing with failure isn’t easy. One bad day can make you forget all your previous successes. It’s normal to feel like this especially if you’re emotionally attached to perfection or making things go your way. You should always find the silver lining in every stumble. One example would be finding the reason for what went wrong and preventing it from happening in the future.

4. Go back to preparing

What you do with your time after failing the dance auditions is crucial to your self-confidence. Some brood about what happened. Others revert to a more relaxed daily routine. But for those who want to keep their confidence high to succeed for the next auditions, they prepare again.

You should do the same. Better yet, give more time for dance practice and hone your artistic skills even further. Nothing makes you more confident than knowing that you’re truly ready for another journey.

5. Visualize success

Another thing that ruins our self-confidence after a failed dance audition is that we tend to reminisce about what we felt, heard, and how we looked like when we received the bad news. To avoid this, take time to daydream about what life would be like for you when you make your dream team.

6. Ignore what other people think

If your negative thoughts after being rejected from the dance auditions won’t affect you, the opinion of others could be your confidence breaker. But one thing is for sure, nobody cares if you fail or not. If they do, their thoughts won’t last. So keep focusing on yourself.

It’s okay to listen to the criticism of others because it helps you learn lessons from them as well. But never forget that it’s more important to welcome support and encouragement.

7. Take a break

As mentioned, what you do with your time after rejection severely affects your self-confidence. While it may be good to go back to audition preparation, doing the things you love or spending time with your beloved ones also work. This is one good strategy to prepare for your comeback. More importantly, avoid brooding or beating yourself up when you feel down.

I welcome failure on my first try. Defeat helps me take my time to improve and find my weaknesses. That’s why in my future attempt at things, I’m more prepared, the challenge is easier to beat, and the taste of victory is even better to savor.

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