Dancing With The Stars Teaches More Than Mambo

by Karen Susman

I promised myself I wouldn’t watch Dancing With The Stars this season. Having nil willpower, I’m hooked. I love the music, the dances, the stars, the gossip, the costumes and the judges. Don’t be fooled by the frivolous. Dancing With The Stars teaches more than the Mambo, the Paso Doble and how to get your spray tan on flawlessly.

There’s the obvious: sometimes you lead and sometimes you follow. The judges applaud when both dancers are so in sync you can’t tell who is leading and who is following. When a partnership is formed, more gets accomplished and with more style.

Another lesson is there are many kinds of intelligences. Steve Wozniak, one of the founders of Apple Computers has more brain cells than you can lift. Yet, he can’t dance. He’s a totally jovial guy who gives 100% in whatever he does; yet he can’t dance. He’s wealthy, yet he can’t dance. He has lots of fans because he’s so likable, yet he can’t dance.

The natural dancers are beautiful to watch. The superior athletes such as Olympic gymnast, Shawn Johnson, inspire as they learn to channel their strength into grace.

When people who are marginal stompers improve and grow, we cheer for them and for their trainers. As I dance around my family room, I feel I can progress along with the less than nimble stars. Hard work, great attitude, putting trust in the trainer and the trainer’s skill take the stars far.

How humbling it must be when contestants who are at the top of their game in another venue find they are totally out of their element. Ty Murray is the king of rodeo cowboys. He is a cowboy through and through. He looked uncomfortable and hesitant during the first show.
He was stiff, expressionless and praying, I imagined, for the rodeo clown to rescue him.

When asked if he felt ready to dance, Ty said, “It’s like bull riding when you’re next in the shoot. You’re never quite ready, but it’s your turn.” A good thought for those of us who must have every duck in a row before we act. If you don’t act before you’re ready, you miss opportunities. If you wait until you’ve got it all together, you can forget what you’re preparing for. Your passion can dissipate, too.

Better to jump in and fail. Failure informs about what works and what doesn’t. Jumping in diminishes fear that slows you down or bars you from new ventures.

The contestants who are not natural dancers have to reinvent themselves. Perhaps they dreamed of one day dancing in glittery costumes on national television. Perhaps that scenario never occurred to them. But here they are.

Many of us find we have to reinvent ourselves. Perhaps we always wanted to work with apes in the wild and this economy gives us the courage to say, “Might as well go ape. What do I have to lose?” For others who never pictured doing anything other than what they are doing, who dreamed of the career they now have, the economy and a pink slip require reinvention of major proportions. For others, the times demand a hard look at what we’re doing. Adjustments have to be made.

For instance, my programs on networking now include social internet networking as well as face-to-face networking. Greet and Tweet. Since this is the 17th time I’ve reinvented myself, I just take a slug of oxygen and keep dancing.

Dancing With The Stars takes my breath away.

Karen Susman, Speaker/Author/Coach, works with organizations and individuals that want to maximize their performance and quality of life. Check out her free tips and articles at www.karensusman.com. Karen can be reached at 1-888-678-8818 or [email protected].