Have you seen the celebrity show ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ (or the American ‘Dancing With the Stars’)?  It pairs celebrities with professional ballroom dancers for the ultimate competition for the glitter ball and the best celebrity dancer.  It think it’s one reality show that can inspire you to tap (get the pun) into the greatness of you!

Okay, I am NOT one for reality shows.  I have not watched one season of the Apprentice with ‘the Donald’ or Lord Sugar, nor the Amazing Race, and never any Survivor series.  You can imagine my surprise when I found myself deeply entrenched watching all the episodes of Strictly Come Dancing (and before that Dancing With The Stars).  Of course my analytic brain wondered why…

1. could it be because I danced as a young child, teenager and was entered into dance competitions myself (and won I might add!)
2. was it my mesmerization with sparkly costumes, big hair, big makeup & high heels
3. was it the theme of taking a challenge and turning it into a triumph
4. it was all of the above and MORE

These 2 series (I can only vouch for these ones) are the perfect examples of motivation, drive and achievement.  All the things our clients quest for and question us about.   The perfect example, with the perfect formula…..so lace up your dancing shoes ladies, and give this formula a twirl.

Step 1 – take a risk outside your comfort zone. (Jerry Rice, all American football player turned ballroom dancer? Carol Kirkwood BBC weather person turned ballroom dancer?   Master P, hiphop artist/producer turned ballroom dancer?  Jake Wood, actor turned ballroom dancer?  You get the picture—someone you’re not… being transformed into someone you will become…

Step 2 – learn a skill previously outside your personal proficiency to ensure legitimate challenge.  Tax the brain to learn something different, harder, outside the usual brain function. In this case,  weekly ballroom dances that require 6-8 hours a day of practice on top of a busy career schedule.  The best brain stretch there is….

Step 3 – learn from a professional ballroom dancer (mentor, coach) who is relentless in making you work, sweat buckets, loose weight, gain muscle and a sense of your body you never had before.

Operative words…learn, fail, get frustrated, get bruised (bones and ego), fall down but learn to get back up, try it over again and master it.  Discipline to mastery…

Step 4 – put these teachings to the test, whether you are fully prepared or not (the airing dates create the schedule to learn, practice and present each dance per week) The contestants did it, ready or not and learned to roll with the punches…a key component of success.

Step 5 – discover learning dancing produces a learning about yourself as a human being when faced with limitations and deadlines.  Discover the strength of your body, discover the agility you can acquire, discover the ability to move in a powerfully beautiful way.

Step 6 – learn there is something inside of you you never could have imagined was part of you prior to taking on a new challenge.  Capability to stretch beyond and grasp a new reality of who you can become and what you can accomplish. (set this to music!)

Step 7 – learn to overwhelmingly enjoy the process of learning again through both mistakes, pain, embarassment and triumph.

Step 8 – learn that competition with others, is always really about competing to be your very best regardless of others. (aka competition with your limitations)

Step 9 – embrace ‘practice’ as the key to perfecting your skills.  The more the dancers spent practicing the same step, the more they perfected the step, perfected their posture, perfected their execution, perfected their integration, perfected the dance, perfected their performance.

I became a Dancing With the Stars junkie (when I lived in Canada and Strictly Come Dancing when I relocated to the UK) because it was exciting for me to witness the change in human spirit and the fight within each of the celebrities to care deeply about this new skill they were learning and wanting to do it better, best, perfect.  The shift from just wanting the top prize to wanting to improve and perfect their abilities was addictive.

Taking it beyond the dance floor,  it reminds me about risking and challenging and testing myself to uncover and discover more potential within me that until that moment of revelation I did not know I possessed. It reminds me of why I keep pushing myself, why I keep reinventing me and how absolutely exhilarating it feels to succeed at it for myself.

It is that strength once uncovered and no longer avoidable that I can take into my career realm and share with others about hopes, possibilities, discipline and perserverance.  Pure transformation.

And I can see in those celebrity contestants what I have witnessed in my clients…the excitement of embracing change in themselves, to tap into that knowledge that they ‘have the right stuff’ to make something more powerful, engaging and meaningful for their lives.

So lace up those dancing shoes and set the motivation formula for mastery in motion….

risk + challenge + practice + test + discover + enjoy + compete =

the greatness of you.

Find something to reach for beyond where and who you are now.  As one contestant once wisely said….”don’t just wish for it, work for it”.

Now…shall we dance…cha, cha, cha!   Love The Burnout Queens xx