What is your meter for success?
You will never have a lot of money, but you will have everything that you want in life... (My Mum told me when I was a kid).
Last month I took two dance crews to the Project 2015 competition. The junior crew is Switch, and the high school crew named Soulfire. As you can tell all my crew names are “fire” related. Our studio motto is, “Light the Fire, Change the Game,” which in short means that you work from the inside to see the results. Know one, teach one. Sounds cliche, it’s a lot of hard work, sleepless nights, but in the end I think it’s pretty cool.
I read an awesome quote from Byron Cox II a couple of days ago, which goes something like...
If your passion doesn’t burn, then call it something else.
We first competed in this competition in 2012, and have gone back ever since. The schools division is a great platform for the beginners to the up and comings. We didn’t place the first year, second in the high school division in 2013, then third in the intermediate division last year.Â
Up until this year I used to take it personally when we didn’t place. I would obsess about what more I could have done, how much extra training the kids could have put in to make a difference. There were some low moments, several, leading up to the competition. In the end I decided that it is better the kids keep their love for dancing, than walk away bitter because I pushed them over the edge.
Then as I spent the day with the crews on competition day, I realised that a lot of my anxiety about placing came down to project my own insecurities and self-doubt. *Ding! Ding!*Â
There is a time and place for when to push your dancers - if they have been dancing most of their lives and that extra training is the difference between a gold or silver at Worlds, yes go for it. Somewhere down the line, through my own fears, I forgot most of these dancers have only been dancing one or two years. Yes I have a few that are seasoned dancers and performers. Their bodies are going through grow spurts, hormonal changes, and whatever else, and they still have so much to learn.
So to answer my own question, “What is your meter for success?” Well, in the context of this blog, I would say here are my top 5:
Discovering and developing your passion
Breaking boundaries and changing mindsets
To finish off, I want to say that it’s good to have goals, aim to be your best and work hard. Just remember to enjoy the journey, create memories, and most importantly, love yourself.
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