I’m sure you have heard the expression “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”  I’m in love with this saying, I really am.  And, my younger self would be like, “Heck yeah, that’s the way I’m going to live!”  So, at what point in the journey do we wander away from this philosophy?  

I feel lucky

Lucky that I was initially able to choose my passion as my career; I don’t take that for granted. I got into the dance business, not really as a choice but more as a calling.  After graduating with a degree in marketing, I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with that.  I had grown up dancing so working at a dance studio seemed to be a great thing to do while I figured out the rest of my life. 

Fast forward 29 years and I am still here.  I am grateful for every opportunity, every lesson, every success, and every painful experience that allowed me to grow into who I am.  But I haven’t danced in two decades.  I have wanted to the entire time, but the problem that always seems to exist is time, or better said, the lack of time.  

I was a great dancer

And I was an even better teacher.  Those successes gave me the opportunity to become a manager, then a studio owner, and on and on the journey went.  My final career destination is every bit corporate and not a bit dancing.  Success and hard work have elevated me to a level where the thing that motivates me personally the most, the reason I got into the industry and took the job to begin with, is gone! 

I no longer dance.  I am no longer a dancer.  Can you relate to this in your own life?  Have you had a growing experience that has moved you further and further away from the actual thing that you love, the thing that may have started your career in the beginning?

Are you decades away from what you love like me?  Do you think there is a way back?  I do, and 2020 has been the difficult reminder to me that maybe I am doing this all wrong.  I am not filled with regret, I am grateful!  But, I am also determined to get back to my place of passion. 

I think we can feed ourselves metaphorically and literally at the same time.  The career path seems to say to us, “never enough.”  And, if you have stripped yourself from the things that fill you back up emotionally, mentally and physically, then it IS NEVER enough.  And, that becomes the cycle that we live in, and NO, it’s not just you!

I’m calling an end to it for me. 

Pre 2020, I wished for the world to stop spinning so that I could catch up and take a breath.  What I learned is that when you truly love what you do, you wish for more, not less. 

For me that means I want to get onto the dance floor instead of leading others to the dance floor.  My career has absolutely given me the gift of becoming the best version of myself, and I love the people I work with and the concept of what I do.  My focus has just become far too much about what everyone else needs and nothing about what I need. 

Living that way has left me in a state of constantly being tired and stressed.  I am overweight, surviving on sugar, not spending nearly enough time with my family and spending absolutely no time on myself.  Wishing for the world to stop spinning was really a wish for the noise to stop, just to have a moment to breathe and to become me again.    

Stress will not only steal your health and fitness, it will still your energy and creativity.  What are we doing here?  If we spend more time serving the needs of others than our own, we will continue to live in a cycle that takes instead of gives. 

We have to stop the cycle. 

My solution has really been accidental.  Maybe it was brewing just beneath the surface, maybe there is a higher power that directed me this way, I am not sure, but what I know is that I see the dance floor within my reach.  My work with www.mybodybydance.com is calling me to step back onto the floor.  I have to be honest I am struggling with it because it has been so long, but it just keeps calling me.  

As much as My Body By Dance was born out of the necessity of a virtual solution, it is the one of the greatest gifts that 2020 gave me.  It is the opportunity to refocus my career on what is good for me and what fills me up instead of giving everything to a career that empties me. 

This solution didn’t drop out of the sky, but it certainly wasn’t on my radar pre 2020.  I have a feeling it is because I was looking at the wrong things.  My suggestion is, let’s all look at what we love and then find a way to rebuild our careers around that. 

I know that we all have had profound and life-changing experiences last year.  Let’s act on the insight we have gained.  It makes no sense to continue on a path that drains you.  This is our ONE life to live.  Let’s live in our passion surrounded by the people and things that we love. 

I’m ready.  I’m excited to be better than before, but back at the beginning to do this again, the right way!  See you on the dance floor!