Ballroom State of Mind

There is a secret ingredient, that if you add to your dancing, will uplevel it in ways you never imagined. Plus, it's just more fun that way.

That ingredient is PLAY. In this episode, share with you the 4 main reasons dancers say they want mental strength coaching and how I think play is an underutilized tool.

Taking cues from the book, Play, How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, but Stuart Brown, MD, we share how play can enhance those 4 areas, plus as a bonus, share his 8 play personalities. Maybe you think you just aren't a playful person or that play means we aren't working hard enough. Well I'd like to change your mind about that. Listen in!

Book a Dance Strategy Call ⁠HERE⁠

Books referenced in the podcast:

Play, How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, but Stuart Brown, MD

If you have ever wanted to better yourself or do anything worthwhile, chances are you have felt that unseen force that seems to immediately get in your way. It's almost like no matter what it is, you have to earn it by getting past the guard.

Author Steven Pressfield terms this Resistance. In this episode I cherry-pick some of the concepts from a couple of his books to share in this Life Skills episode.

We describe Resistance, identify some of it's disguises or forms, why it's a good sign if you are experiencing it and then what to do to help overcome it.  Enjoy!

Book a Dance Strategy Call ⁠HERE⁠

Books referenced in the podcast:

The War of Art and Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be, both by Steven Pressfield⁠

One of the most common things dancers complain about is being stuck in their head. They know they do this, and perhaps even their teacher tells them they need to get out of their head, but they don't seem to know how.

As I have thought about this something came to mind that I think will help with this overthinking problem. I wonder if we haven't quite figured out that a training mindset and a performance mindset are two different things. This becomes evident when we realize our overthinking in performances might be because we are just escalating our training mindset and taking it into a performance space rather that having a different mindset all together.

In this episode, we explore the differences and then give you direction on how to cultivate your performance mindset.

Book a Dance Strategy Call HERE

Pick up The Inner Game of Tennis book HERE

What if you have prepared, practiced and feel ready, but then your performance goes poorly and you are beset with setbacks and errors? What can we do with that to help us remain confident in what we are capable of? Thank you to Nate Zinsser, the author of The Confident Mind for these three strategies to lock down setbacks and move forward constructively.

1. Make it temporary

2. Make it limited

3. Make it non-representative of yourself

I explain each of these in this episode. Be sure to listen immediately!

To get personalized help, book a ⁠⁠⁠free ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dance Strategy Call⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. 

These calls will not be free for much longer!! Get it while you can!

You should go buy The Confident Mind by Nate Zinsser. It will reveal all my secrets but I don't mind because I know it will help you so much!!

You've done it. You've gotten yourself here. You are ready. This is my pep talk for you on the big day. It's gameday and it's time to shine. You can do this and I'm so proud of you!

To get personalized help, book a ⁠⁠⁠free ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dance Strategy Call⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

For more free mindset help, join my Facebook group, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Joyful Ballroom⁠⁠

"I don't want to disappoint my teacher."

"When this is all done, I don't want to feel disappointed."

Disappointment. So many of my clients put themselves through a lot of stress and anxiety in preparation for events, showcases, medal exams and competitions. When we dig a little deeper to see why we are so stressed, many of them end up saying something to the effect of, "I just don't want to disappoint ______." It's usually their teacher, but it also includes themselves.

Disappointment must be pretty bad for us to create all this negative energy in preparation for it. But is it?

In this episode we speak to two key points when it comes to disappointment. One is that we can't create disappointment in other people. And the second is how we need to make peace with people feeling negative emotion and that nothing has gone wrong if they do.

Listen in to see what I mean.

To get personalized help, book a ⁠⁠⁠free ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dance Strategy Call⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

For more free mindset help, join my Facebook group, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Joyful Ballroom⁠⁠

In this episode we talk a little about The Emerald Ball 2024, dancing syllabus routines in open rounds, what judges say about that, and what to do with your backseat driver.

Your backseat driver is the voice in your head that pops up at the most inopportune times and gets in the way of what you are trying to do in difficult moments.

Listen in and see if you can relate.

To get personalized help, book a ⁠⁠⁠free ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dance Strategy Call⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

For more free mindset help, join my Facebook group, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Joyful Ballroom⁠⁠

Where did you get the idea about how much it would take to accomplish a certain goal? Sometimes we look around and make a guess based on what we see, but often we are also REALLY wrong. It often takes a lot more than we thought to accomplish things we set out to do.

If you find yourself in this place, you could call it Effort Shock. David Wong brought up this term in his article, 'How The Karate Kid Ruined the Modern World.' It what he named that state when you realize it's not as easy as you thought. It doesn't help that The Karate Kid and Rocky made it look so easy to become so great...all you need is a montage of about 10 minutes.

In this episode, we talk about effort shock, define it, give some examples and then discuss what to do now, if you find yourself in this place. We talk about 3 options for going forward: work harder, quit, or make peace with what you are willing to give.

Listen in to find out what you might want to do next if you find yourself in effort shock.

To get personalized help, book a ⁠⁠free ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dance Strategy Call⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

For more free mindset help, join my Facebook group, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Joyful Ballroom⁠⁠

There are a lot of reasons that you might feel behind in your dance journey. Most of the time, that feeling is based in fear and scarcity and is largely unproductive for us to dwell on.

But there is one type of feeling behind that I think makes sense and will probably always be with you.

Listen in to see what I mean. This quick episode might bend your mind a little but I think you are ready for it.

To get personalized help, book a ⁠⁠free ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dance Strategy Call⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

For more free mindset help, join my Facebook group, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Joyful Ballroom⁠⁠

Ah, the extremes. Our brains just love the extremes. Good or bad, hot or cold, perfect or a failure. Two options is what a lazy brain likes because then we don't have to sift through other options.

But if you experience a lot of all or nothing thinking, you also likely have some depression, anxiety, or a whole host of other negative experiences.

In this episode, I introduce you to all or nothing thinking so that you can identify it in yourself, and then give you 5 steps to overcome it.

I think you'll find a more reasonable, 80% gets it done attitude can not only help you feel better and more motivated, but actually still lead to a lot of accomplishment and success.

To get personalized help, book a ⁠⁠free ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dance Strategy Call⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

For more free mindset help, join my Facebook group, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Joyful Ballroom⁠⁠