“Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.”
~Anne Lamott
I just finished a powerful course to “perfect” my new keynote, First Most Always, and I’m ready to bring to the world the message of loving ourselves more in order to live and lead as our best selves. (Please reach out if you have an audience or if you want to hear about it. 😊)
One of the many things we learned in the course was to just go out there and do it and do it big. To not let our self-doubts or fears or concerns about what others would think stop us. To not worry if our feet were dancing right.
I’m pretty sure that Anne Lamott was suggesting we dance even if we haven’t practiced and somewhat perfected our moves. And I’m pretty sure (I noticed it in the course) that even when we have practiced and somewhat perfected our moves, we still can be afraid to dance. To show up and take the stage. To live life out loud.
I was in that course because I believe my message is powerful and that the world (or at least many people and leaders) will benefit from hearing it, and I know that all of my course-mates felt the same thing about their very powerful messages.
And yet, we still can pause before we “dance” and worry if our feet are dancing well enough. We can hold back from diving in and showing the world what we’ve got. Yet, if we dove in, we’d probably have a dang good time along the way and we’d probably give even more benefits or resources to others. When we hold back, we risk robbing ourselves of our joy of doing it and robbing others of those benefits and resources.
So, I’m going to agree with Anne. I’m going to follow her advice and dance with as much joy and beauty and power as I can, and I’m going to continue to suggest this approach to life to my clients, colleagues, friends, and family.
If you enjoyed this post, you can read more like it in our book, The Power of Thoughtful Leadership: 101 Minutes To Being the Leader You Want To Be, available on Amazon.
If you want to dance more, contact Lisa at lkohn@chatsworthconsulting.com.
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