As I mentioned in my debut newsletter, coaching and salsa dancing changed my life. I spend most of my waking hours doing one or the other. And lessons on the dance floor, for me, always seem to reflect larger life lessons.
I’ve made my greatest progress as a dancer while studying with Raul Santiago. He is a master instructor with a very unique style to his teaching. Spend more than a few weeks attending his classes or private lessons and you’ll begin to recognize some of his signature lines.
One of my favorites is “…don’t just hope it works out.” To the men in our class, his point is don’t just start your partner into a step or move and hope for the best. Instead, lead the beginning, middle and end of the move – stay present and focused if you want to successfully complete the step.
For the women, he uses it to remind us when we are led into a spin to use the correct footwork and spot our partner. Otherwise, we’ll fall off center or end up on another part of the dance floor far, far away. We, too, must be present and focused to complete our part of the step. It sounds simple, but it has been a challenge for me to break the old habit of looking down.
Addressing old patterns in life that hold us back can take a lot of effort at first. It’s easier to operate on auto pilot, doing what we know and is familiar. But if we’re not present, making conscious choices and taking well thought out steps, it isn’t likely we will complete our goals. And, I believe there is nothing more painful than living with unrealized goals.
Though I feel I’ve accomplished a lot, until recently I lived with a feeling that I wasn’t even close to reaching my highest potential. Each time I took on a new goal, particularly in the area of my career, there was a part of me hoping “…it would work out.”
Completing a brief online assessment I use as key component of my Well Beyond Ordinary System revealed to me my long term, self-sabotaging pattern which basically ensured it would not, in fact, work out. Hoping for the best was not enough. As soon as I became aware of the pattern, I had the opportunity to make a choice. I could continue to go through my pretty good life or I could finally choose to start living to my highest potential.
Once the Assessment helped me to identify the pattern, I hired a coach as one of my tools to make sure it worked out and I faced my fears. I am no longer living with the pain of unrealized goals. I’m following Raul’s lesson ~ being present and staying focused with a clear intention of exactly what I am creating in my life.
Ask yourself, are you intentionally setting goals that clearly support the vision you have for yourself or are you just hoping it works out? What if you could could pinpoint exactly what has been holding you back? What will it take for you to have a life that works out for you so you are living at your highest potential?
