Don’t look at your feet

I was in a meeting this week and one of the participants told us about something she’s working really hard on. While we cheered her on, another woman said “Don’t forget to focus on the fun”. 

She meant if you only focus on the details and how hard things are, it makes things harder. When you focus on the fun, you’ll have a much better experience (and outcome). 

I love everything about this – focusing on the fun makes a huge difference

Once I heard this, I flashed back to a time I attended a wedding in Italy. Talk about fun! We really had a blast. 

But the fun came to a screeching halt once I started dancing with my friend’s brother. Let’s call him Aldo.

 You should know that Aldo is a very good dancer, and that I am not. Get a glass of wine in me, and I’ll dance all night long at a wedding. But I’ve never gotten the hang of the kind of dancing where one of the couple leads and the other follows gracefully. Which is what we were attempting. 

Let me tell you: I struggled. I couldn’t follow his lead and I kept putting my feet right where his feet went. Fun? Nope, this was actually painful. 

So I looked down at my feet, hoping that would make a difference. Things got worse from there. Focusing on what I wasn’t doing right didn’t magically help me. 

Finally I thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse if I looked up, so I did.

And everything changed.

Wouldn’t you know I started to really enjoy myself. I got to smile at the nice person I was dancing with. As he spun me around the room, I saw smiles and joy on the faces of everyone else. 

AND  . . . . I wound up dancing much better. No more painful foot crunching – it was like my feet suddenly learned how to two-step.

Once I got out of my head and allowed myself to focus on the fun, everything changed. 

Take some advice from a not-great (but enthusiastic) dancer: don’t look at your feet. Focus on the fun, keep your head up and really enjoy the experience. You’ll have a much different outcome. I promise.