As you might know, I have been a dance teacher for decades. Yes, talk about aging myself! Really…it’s been that long. I’ve learned so much about others through this work, mostly parents that can be so very challenging. It’s a great lesson in human nature and the protectiveness of parents. So often their good intentions stifle the beautiful and natural growth and learning of their children.

I’ve learned so much about children too. Of course, most of my students have been girls, and as I have such a strong affinity to girls and enjoy and understand them so well I love what I have been blessed to do. One thing I realize though, as much as they thought I was giving and teaching them, they returned to me twofold still remember some years ago a sweet little girl named Molly. She was probably 10 years old when I started teaching her, and she was so unsure of herself. She would struggle with wanting to excel in dance, and I had never heard any child say, “I can’t” as Molly did. I gently reminded her that she was still learning, still evolving and that Rome wasn’t made in a day. We started this mantra, she would say “I can’t do XYZ” and I would get her to repeat it with the word “Yet”. I can’t do a pirouette, yet”

That word yet reframes everything. We are all learning, still growing and evolving. If we aren’t open to that evolution then we are stagnant, and not forward progressing. We can’t possibly be learning and be proficient at everything. Whether you’re learning to bake for the first time in your life, learning to skate, because it’s something you always wanted to do in your life and never managed to learn as a child, or we have a change in our career, and we have many things to learn, we are all on the way to hopefully mastering what we’ve set out to learn. So when we feel discouraged at our progress, and we know we are all our own worst critics, it’s time to use that word, “Yet” I’m not proficient at skating yet. I’m not able to bake a souffle without it flopping yet. I can’t figure out facebook ads, yet. 

It’s a process, and the only way to further ourselves is to learn, and conquering something usually doesn’t happen overnight. It’s baby steps towards your goal. Perhaps it’s a new start-up business. It’s important to gently remind ourselves that we are on the way t success, and all those little things that we are doing so diligently are getting us one step closer to where we want to be. It may feel out of reach, but you’re working towards your goal, and you just haven’t got there yet.