Tapping My Comfort Zone

I never signed up for tap dance classes with the intent to ‘take-over’ Broadway. Trust me; Broadway is by no means under any threat by my newly acquired marginal tap dance skills. My initial intent was to have some fun, and stretch beyond my comfort zone. If I’d had any idea how big a stretch I was saying yes to, I may very well have reconsidered my choice.

Last week at class, I was not having fun. As I looked in the mirror, what I was asking my body to do and what I was seeing reflected back at me were two different things. I was feeling completely humiliated, and I was on the verge of tears. How could I allow myself to even consider that with absolutely no dance background that I could learn tap dancing steps as a 50-something … ha, who was I fooling.

At one point, I stopped to catch my breath, or else I would have totally melted down in front of all these other “Broadway threats”. It took getting to this place of near breakdown to collect myself. As I did this, I was able to watch the others in the full length mirrors, and much to my surprise, I could see that many of them were finding some of the tap steps challenging.

I made a point of chatting with my 20-something instructor, who makes it all look so easy, and she was able to acknowledge, “Hey Ruth, this stuff is hard, stick with it, you are doing better than you think”. Somehow her simple support was enough to help me return to class, where although I still feel like I am attempting crossword puzzles with my feet, I understand that the easiest thing would be to quit and then I would still be living in my comfort zone and my entire objective had been to stretch into new realms one step at a time.

Where do you need to focus on your tenacity in order to achieve your goals?