This past week, I had my two regular lessons, one working on rhythm and the other working on smooth. During the rhythm lesson, we danced the cha cha routine to music and I NAILED that stupid spin TWICE! Then we worked on rumba and I “upgraded” my hip movement, according to Teacher. During the smooth lesson, we revisited tango. Teacher wanted me to focus on keeping my right arm forward (I tended to let it pull back, especially when the movement required me to put my left side forward). We worked on these tiny adjustments I could make to be able to take my left side forward without affecting the right.

You know how your teacher will tell you to do something and keep telling you you’re not doing it and then all of a sudden, after making the tiniest adjustment that you may or may not be aware that you made, they exclaim “yes, that’s it!”? Usually, in that situation, I have no idea what adjustment I made. But during this week’s smooth lesson, I actually started to feel it. I consciously made a tiny correction while we were dancing and Teacher felt it and confirmed it was correct!

Sounds like an awesome week, right? Well, it was!

So what’s the catch? There must be something, it can’t all be good.

Usually I would search for that one thing that would ruin or mar my great dance lessons. Instead of going down that well-traveled path though, I’m choosing to believe that maybe there isn’t a catch. Maybe I just had a great couple lessons and I should just shut up and enjoy that fact! I only have one lesson next week, so I’m aiming to make that the third great one in a row.

I noted that I really enjoyed the learning this week too. Experiencing success definitely helps in that regard. It gives me confidence that I’ll be successful again and fuels my motivation to learn more and take on the next challenge. Of course, I wasn’t perfect and never will be (is that the catch?). But there was improvement. Not only improvement, but improvement that I could feel. That’s the important part. Being able to tell that I’m getting better instead of just taking someone else’s word for it. There have been plenty of lessons where I’ve told Teacher I’m just going to take his word that I did something better because I didn’t feel it or couldn’t tell that I did anything different. This week I could tell the difference and could honestly say I did feel it and it did feel better. Yay!

The other exciting thing I’m aiming to just enjoy is the release of Dance Diaries: Ballroom Budgeting! I approved the proofs only on Friday and it’s already up for sale on iTunes and Amazon. The obvious thing I could choose to mar this success with is the anticipation of sales or lack thereof. But just completing it and making it available for sale marks success. I set out to do something and I did it! This book is near and dear to my heart too because I’m living it. I didn’t do research on budgeting or personal finances. I just wrote out everything I do to keep myself dancing. It breaks my heart to hear that someone had to quit dance because of money. I’m hoping this book will help at least one person stay on the dancefloor.

Happy dancing, and for those in the U.S., happy 4th of July!