'This is really hard!' - Part 1

‘Wow, this is really hard.’
- a phrase countless participants and myself have used more times than I can keep track of…

I started pole dancing in 2010 and since then have trained or taught all levels of pole, hoop, silks, hammock, barre, conditioning classes, flexibility classes, and choreography classes. Literally (the actual use of the word,) thousands of hours of training and teaching. More often than not, self taught, trying to figure out with fellow instructors, what the hell I’m doing. That’s a picture of me back in the day poling in my unfinished basement doing a basic invert thinking, I can’t imagine doing anything cooler than this move. Look at that flexed foot - bless my heart. Looking back, if I can summarize my experience, I would say, ‘This is really hard’, and ‘I have a long way to go.’

Writing the paragraph above feels a little uncomfortable - I worry if it comes across as a moment to give myself a big pat on the back… ‘look at allllll these things I have done’, when in fact, it can’t be further from the truth. Doing this for this long, I still have Imposter Syndrome; however, I wonder if that’s part of the process. The more a person learns about anything, the more you realize you know nothing as there are worlds of information within each discipline or any area of life for that matter.

Will this get any easier?

I hope not.

Before I get too ahead of myself, let’s take a moment to look at the big picture. The most rewarding experiences or the most valuable, come from overcoming challenges. Whether these are physical, emotional, mental, you name it, when you come out on the other side, there is generally more confidence, resiliency, or a lesson whether you wanted it or not. The second is investing in something. Whether it’s a hobby, relationship, etc., investing time, effort and energy comes with great satisfaction. In a world of continual instant gratification, investing into something and bumping into and overcoming challenges couldn’t be more valuable.

Fortunately (although many times you may feel unfortunately), you will bump up into this time and time again when training, and I couldn’t be happier for you. No, I am not sadistic. I am happy that in these struggles you are going to get to know parts of yourself that maybe you haven’t explored before. To clarify, suffering for the sake of suffering or self-punishment is completely unnecessary and not what I’m talking about here - being faced with challenges to grow is.

Throughout this mini blog series, I’m going to discuss the different types of challenges you may face (to validate your experience), how to approach these challenges, hear what other instructors have to say about their experience, and explores what comes out of it.

So buckle your seat belts (or strap on your stilettos), and let’s take a look at why ‘This is really hard’ is what it’s all about.

xoxox

-Brigitte