I’m not athletic. I never played sports.
Most of my life has been spent on mental pursuits. I’m an architect by day, planning layouts and designing construction details for manufacturing and industrial clients. In my off hours, I write fiction, crafting plots, writing and rewriting. Yes, I’m a nerd at heart.
Ten years ago, I discovered ballroom dancing. It was different, more physical than mental. It was social, which gave me a chance to meet other people and break out of my introvert shell. Several times a week I enter what I call the happiest place on Earth, the dance studio where I have studied about two dozen ballroom dances. During this time, something unexpected happened. Out of the blue, I started having ahas, lightning bolts of insight. These realizations applied to more than dance. They were lessons about life. They kept coming. My most important discovery is this:
You don’t know what you don’t know.
And because you can only act out of the knowledge in your head and experience, I saw that what I didn’t know that I didn’t know was keeping me stuck.
Beyond that, I discovered doing something different will help you find out what it is you don’t know.
Along the way, I learned how to take action to unlock my “unsolvable” problems. Because some things can’t be figured out with pencil and paper. Believe me, I’ve tried. It’s my number one go-to.
In ballroom there’s no sitting on the sidelines. You interact with people, one on one. Movement adds dimension, more than simply “being” with someone. Executing a series of dance steps as you make your way around the floor, stirs the blood, changes your world from static to dynamic, and drives your awareness to the next level.
I’ve discovered there’s magic when you move with purpose while in connection with another human being. This active engagement amps up the volume in shared experiences and moves a humdrum life into a dynamic one.
And we’re all looking for a dynamic life, right?
Currently, I’m pitching a book on this subject: life lessons I’ve discovered through ballroom dancing.
Isn’t it a grand adventure?