Wednesday Words of Wisdom

I just wanted to share a little excerpt from a book I’m reading. The authors point out that “…[in regard to inaction] Actions could have had results. It is generally better to do something rather than nothing, because action just might have a positive effect. There’s even more to the advantage of action over inaction…it’s certain that inaction will have NO benefit.”

So, how does this apply to each of us and our participation in FSF? Well think about this…How many of you have said to yourself that you’re waiting until you “get better” to do FSF or that you’re waiting for a “different type of song”? And in hindsight what has really been accomplished by waiting? How many weeks have gone by where we’ve skipped working on our dance? Consider the fact that there are 1,440 minutes in a day and 10,080 minutes in a week, so what are our reasons for not taking 5 minutes out to just let go of all of our inhibitions and dance? Think beyond the reasons of work, injury, family obligations…etc. What I hear most often from my fellow pole sisters are:

• “I don’t know how to freestyle”
• “I’m not good at it”
• “I don’t know enough tricks”
• “I’m not ready”
• “It won’t look good”

Although, I would certainly disagree with each of those statements no matter who you are (we don’t give ourselves enough credit for what we do know and are able to do). The fact that you are a pole dancer, you’ve been to classes, you’ve learned tricks and transitions means that you are ready and YOU CAN do it. There’s a lot that we can learn about ourselves and our dance just by doing it. No matter how good or bad we think we are, there is always something to be learned and growth that can be achieved. So ask yourself: what’s the harm in trying?

Think about this…Do we skip pole class each week because we can’t do a trick? No, we go to class and work on that trick until we nail it. Do we avoid stretch class because we are unable to do the splits? No, we go get our stretch on (maybe even make our own daily stretch routine) and do this until we master that split. So I wonder why don’t we apply that same approach to our freestyle dance? Working on your freestyle dance will produce positive effects. Practicing will bring you more success and learning than not working on it would.

I want to emphasize that what’s important is NOT your activity here in the FSF group, rather, what matters most is your efforts and motivation to work on your Freestyle Dance “offline”. Challenge yourself to a personal Freestyle battle…recording periodically and comparing your videos to see your growth. This group serves simply as a form of motivation and structure. While it is also a platform for those that wish to share videos (although there’s nothing wrong with keeping yours private) it’s also a prosocial opportunity for us to support one another by asking questions, giving encouragement and offering feedback.

Stop putting off what you can do today and TAKE ACTION!