Life Lessons From Bollywood

About two months ago, I started taking dance classes at a local studio called Dance101. All of the dancers are adults and come from all walks of life. It has been a lot of fun and I’ve had the privilege of learning from some of the best instructors in the city. I take all kinds of classes, but one of my favorites is Bollywood Beats with Neeti Mehta.

For those who know me well, you know that I love Bollywood. I even speak a little bit of Hindi and have a Bollywood Beats station on Pandora.

The one thing I can say about this class is that it isn’t nearly as easy as it looks in the movies. The beats are fast and it takes serious focus to keep up. Last week’s class not only got my heart rate pumping and my feet moving… but it reminded me of a few life lessons as well.

I’ve been steadily improving since I started, but the moves just weren’t coming together for me during the better part of last week’s class.

Just as we were heading in the homestretch of the class, I realized why.

I was too busy paying attention to the dancers I perceived to be better than me. In the midst of doing this, I wasn’t focused on the task at hand (which was successfully executing the dance at a rapid pace).

It made me wonder how often this happens in business (or other areas of life). Is it possible to get so distracted by what others are doing and trying to be like them that you lose sight of performing at your personal best?

Lesson #1: You can only be better than the person you were yesterday. Don’t put so much focus on what others around you are doing that you lose focus on performing at your own personal best.

Once I started focusing on what my own feet and hands were doing, the dance became much easier and a lot more fun. We were coming down to the last two performances of the dance when Neeti announced that she would be recording the next round.

And right before she cued up the music, she said “Give this one all you’ve got… and that’s more than you think you have”

That was the second Aha for me. How often do we just give 100% and walk away satisfied thinking we’ve reached our potential?

What would potentially happen if you just gave a little more and tried a little harder? I’d be willing to bet it would be one amazing performance.

Lesson #2: Don’t underestimate how far you can go. You are often capable of accomplishing far more than you think you can if you just put yourself out there.

To Neeti… I say Dhanyavaad! You unknowingly inspired me in last week’s class and excited me for the week ahead.

To everyone reading this... I hope this inspires you to stay focused on improving your personal best in whatever it is your are attempting and not get distracted by what your peers or competitors are doing. Also, be careful to not underestimate how far you can go or what you can accomplish. You just might miss out on something great if you do.

And if you're interested in how the dance turned out... click here to watch the video. :-)