Dare to Do!

This summer, while I was away, I dared to take a tiny baby-step. I signed up for a Zumba classes with 5 other much older ladies. It changed my life – and got me totally unstuck! I want to share that with you just in case you’re in need of a tiny push to do something that you’ve been avoiding.

Let me explain the back story.

When I was in high-school, I was extremely athletic. I hung out in the gym and played virtually every sport. I was on all the school sports teams – basketball, volleyball, badminton, soccer. I always felt like I went to school for the sports and nothing else. When I graduated from high-school I quit doing sports. I was told that University took too much time and I should focus on my studies. It was my biggest regret. Sports gives you a social life and I missed the friends and connections I’d had with others through sports.

For the next many years, I took up walking and snowshoeing – but I missed being on a sports team and that sense of belonging you get. So, I started doing aerobics and step classes because I love exercise that feels like dance. And I became one of a small group of regulars for many years. But, about 10 years ago, my Instructor died suddenly of a brain tumour.

And I couldn’t work up the energy to go back to fitness class.

I stopped all forms of exercise except walking. I began to feel like I’d lost that inner athlete that was part of me. I began to believe that she was gone forever. And as I got older and started getting aches and pains, I began to grieve that part of myself that had loved to move.

Until this summer.

I dared to decide to take a baby step – with no expectation of doing anything more, not as a stepping stone to the next great plan, just for the experience itself, I went to a Zumba class with 5 other much older ladies. I called them the fit grannies. They were the grey-haired, Zumba regulars - fit, and SO nice. When I got lost, they showed me what to do. They smiled and had words of encouragement. They showed me how to use the newfangled gym equipment. They eased me back into exercise. And it was so much fun.

About 3 times a week for only 25 minutes a class we jumped around, sweated and I goofed off as I got lost following the choreographed steps – I had fun! And I felt like I belonged again.

I loved it.

I remembered how much I love rhythmical exercise.

I remembered that music and movement is my jam.

And I’d forgotten. I’d forgotten such an important part of me.

In Zumba with the older ladies, I wasn’t comparing myself or wanting to be different or better – I was just being, and I broke through my exercise blockage – one I’d had for almost 10 years.

For the fall, I just joined a new fitness center right near me that offers exercise classes to music. 

It’s a younger crowd and a much tougher class, but I feel confident.

I know I can do this now.

I’m bringing the exercise that I love, back into my daily life.

All because of my older ladies Zumba class!

Here’s my advice to you on how to start doing anything:

1. Do the tiniest little thing that feels like fun that moves you in the direction you want to go.

2. Don’t make a multi-step plan where your tiny step is the first step.

3. MAKE NO LONG-TERM PLAN. Have no expectations of what you’ll do next.

4. Focus entirely on the present, and having as much fun as you can, with the tiny step that you take.

Let the next things evolve. If you’re having fun and feeling good, you’ll get new inspirations. Follow those.

Dare to Do.

Big love,