Hi friends!
I’ve been thinking a lot about bringing back Motivation Monday. I love starting the week on a positive note, and maybe you do too? I thought I’d kick things off with a quote related to a challenge / success story from the weekend.
This weekend, I faced a lifelong fear of mine – stage fright. How did I tackle it? Head on. With encouragement from a dance friend, I signed up for a hip hop performance workshop in NYC. Eep! It was an equally terrifying and uplifting experience, and I’ll be blogging about it in more detail soon. For now, I want to share one of my favorite quotes on fear:
The quote goes:
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
There is more to it. Click here for the the full quote. Eleanor Roosevelt has many I love. But I felt the section above applied most to my performance experience. Even just the thought of signing up for the workshop brought back painful memories from when I was a young figure skater entering the competition scene. I eventually stopped competing because I couldn’t handle my stage fright. Fast forward to today. I had many moments when I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Is this a good idea? Maybe I should quit while I’m ahead. What if I mess up the entire routine? What if I forget my choreo?
I decided that I couldn’t live in a what-if world. Or if I wanted to have a what-if, it should be something positive. Like, what if I do this performance and absolutely love it? The time was right to tackle this fear. I really do think the best way to face your fears is usually to be direct. So, the best way to face stage fright? Get on a stage!
As I mentioned above, I’ll be sharing my experience in detail soon. But, the good news is that I was successful in my personal challenge. On Sunday, I participated in two performances of a beginner hip hop routine with PMT Dance Studio and eight talented dancers. I was nervous leading up to it, but I pushed past the fear, got on that stage, and danced my heart out. And you know what? I had fun too!
I will forever be grateful to this group (and others at PMT) for their constant support. From Nzinga who encouraged me to do the workshop with her, to my fellow performers who gave me lots of positive reinforcement, to my instructors (Dev and Mo) who have been encouraging and supportive of me since I first started attending their classes back in February. Thank you!
Ok, your turn! What is a fear that you have faced recently? Or if you haven’t worked up the courage yet, what is a fear you could tackle head on? Go get em, tiger!
Please feel free to share this post with someone who could use some encouragement. There are share buttons at the end of this post, and there’s even an email option if you want to send it more privately. Cheers!