Make your Normal…Awesome!
I shared a really fun and inspiring moment with my intermediate level students in class last week. I was explaining to them that they should always dance “full out”. Even in class, every time they drill a movement, or dance choreography, it should be done as if they were on stage. With correct posture, full range of movement, flow and fluidity and even stage presence.
Whenever we are performing, on stage or at a competition, there are so many other factors to take into account – the audience, the space, the floor we are dancing on, the lighting, the costumes, our energy levels, nerves, adrenaline and so much more. All these things affect our dancing and performance, either positively or negatively, and if a few things are not as we would like them to be, they can take away from our performance and what we would like it to be.
I told my students that by making their practice dancing as good as it can possibly be, every single time they dance, they set a high “normal” for themselves. By doing this they are training their minds and bodies to a high standard. If their normal is high, then their actual performance is set to be even higher! And if there are things affecting their performance negatively, then their “normal” will become their comfortable, default mode – which will still be awesome, as that is how they practiced it!
“Make your normal…awesome!”
As I said these words to them, it’s like we all had an “AHA” moment – myself included! I love finding new quotes, and this one was a good one!
I’ve been thinking over the words “Make your normal…awesome!” for a few days now, and how they are true for everything in our lives, not just in dancing. Everything we do for the first time, or even first few times, is practice and preparation for how we are going to do it forever. We just do it. We don’t usually give thought to how much energy or effort we plan to put into something, we just do it, with our own default setting. Some things that we are more passionate about might be given more energy, and things that we don’t enjoy, will be given less energy. We can’t compare how we do something to the next person, because we all have our default way to do things.
But what if we make our default, normal setting, awesome? If we put a little more energy, a little more effort into the way we do something new. If we approach it with a positive attitude and enthusiasm, and do it well the first time, match it the second time, and the third time, and eventually the way we do it becomes our normal default way?
The possibilities for our own growth are endless! A small amount of extra energy for each thing we do opens it up to be even better in the future. Or, if outside influences make it harder for us to do it, our default will still be awesome enough for us to do it effortlessly, yet well. A little more energy at the beginning actually makes things easier, and more comfortable, for us later.
I have always done everything in my life to the best of my ability and with a lot of effort, but defining that, into these words “make your normal…awesome!” I feel that I am opening myself up to even more possibilities, and that is so exciting! If my normal is awesome, then there is hardly any room left for nerves or fear, or failure. I can be confident that I know what I am doing, and that I am doing it well.