As an adult? As a professional? As a student?
When you are a kid, everything is new. Learning new things is part of the job description. When you become an adult, you are expected to know some things, be willing to grow or not, be willing to learn or not. If you choose not to learn and grow you will be left in the dust as the world, technology and your children pass you by.
We must admit that there is always someone better than us, more of an expert, spending more time learning, and we must admit there is always someone who is not, at least most of the time.
There is nothing wrong with being a newbie. In fact, it’s amazing to have the freedom to have a learner’s mindset. It opens doors, perspectives, opportunities and adds to our skill, interest and proficiency sets. It also means you don’t have to have any answers.
In January, I enrolled in a tap dance class for adults. This is something I have never done before, but always thought was cool. Seeing some of the tappers on Broadway, in old movies and the contemporary tappers who bang out the most amazing rhythms. Why not give it a try?
If you are familiar with flow theory, you know there is a sweet spot when there’s the right amount of challenge with the right amount of skill, you get in the groove and time passes without you even realizing it. It’s glorious. I am NOT there yet. I’m on the low ability/high anxiety portion of the model. Some weeks it’s overwhelming and I feel like a total dork, as well as probably look like one 😉. Some weeks my brain and my feet are definitely at war or at least in a pretty potent argument. Sometimes I actually start getting it and the sounds I make with my feet are actually in sync with some of the other students. That’s typically short lived, no sooner do I get it than our instructor introduces something new…ugh!
Our instructor is amazing. She has incredible energy AND patience. She gets beginners like me and people who have tapped before. She is really great at making us laugh, sharing the crazy names of tap steps, the history and how they all fit together. She is incredibly adept at sharing the rhythms and footwork in a multitude of ways to appeal to all the different types of learners in the class.
And I’m the class clown. Lost dazed and confused trying to keep up with kids in their teens, the young adults, the few adults that are my senior and kicking my ass by the way. I know it’s not a competition, yet it is the epitome of how learning something new is something we should all do every now and then remember what a challenge it can be when you are new and feel clumsy, uncoordinated and out of sorts. It also helps us remember how we can be helpful, patient and encouraging when we are the one's who have the experience.
I read somewhere that learning social dancing like line dancing, ballroom dancing and tap can help your brain maintain and improve its elasticity. Maybe that explains why my brain feels like spaghetti after I get out of class.
I’m grateful to the fun crew in my class. They are encouraging, laugh at my ridiculous comments and occasionally poorly placed guffaws. One in particular keeps encouraging me, telling me it will eventually make sense. I take comfort in knowing that our instructor teaches little kids all the way up to older adults. I couldn’t be the absolute worst…could I?!?
Learning tap reminds me of when I was learning how to program and personalize the CRM for my business. Everything was brand new. It was a complete mystery to me. Slowly but surely, I began to understand how it worked. The creators and instructors were patient even when I felt like my brain was melting. This I how I feel about AI now. It’s very overwhelming and it takes guts to learn something new.
How will tap help me out in the future? It makes me smile, pushes me to do things I didn’t know I could, makes me feel part of something and feel a sense of camaraderie with the other tappers learning something new, even though sometimes it’s frustrating as heck.
Not everything comes easy to us, at some point we were all frustrated as heck before we became moderately capable, proficient or an expert. It’s good for us to remember and have this feeling to keep us humble and be able to share our expertise with others.
Whatever it is that you want to learn, whether it’s for work or personal interest, find your courage, scoop up your guts, put yourself out there and try. I’m never going to be Savion Glover, yet I can riff off a few rhythms with my feet to the music while smiling and laughing with my fellow students. Anything you choose is going to take some time, practice and persistence, then you’ll be glad you did.
