This is how kizomba looks like, it's a cool couple social dance which is danced to nice kizomba beat, r'n'b type of music. anyway...to the story.
Since I was 19 years old I started online web design blog 1stwebdesigner.com and worked on it for 8 years till I was 27. (currently 29 - hey!)
Just found this from old Google archives..sold the business by now.
It always felt like the right calling and the right direction. Until it didn't.
I loved dancing and dreamed about spending a year traveling to dance festivals, once I build the business to work without me.
Interestingly that moment never came, except when I sold the bussiness.
After making the leap of faith and the sale was done, I was suddenly free to do whatever I wanted for 3 years (that's the math I did in my mind).
- 1 year — traveling the festivals, spending a lot of money for flights, festivals, accomodation;
- 2 years — spending as little as I could to build the next thing that would make me money;
Obviously my mind was fighting me.
I was dancing kizomba and while traveling to the festivals all around Europe, learned to add value by filming & leearning to edit these videos. — https://www.youtube.com/c/OnKizomba
It said, “dancing is a hobby”, “you'll never be good enough — people start dancing from early age and often don't make it”.
But then I thought — there is nothing to lose, so WHY NOT?
And WHAT IF? What if I could become a professional dancer, make money with it? How would that feel?
So I designed a strict dancing practice routine — where my own requirement was to dance at least 3 hours/day.
Then I read books about practicing, dancing like — “Learn To Practice First” or Derek Hough “Taking The Lead”.
I scheduled festivals ahead for a year, bought tickets and reached out to organisers offering to work as videographer — in exchange for ticket and/or accomodation.
It worked.
I went to around 25 kizomba festivals this year (2017), and because I was filming everything I got to know the stars of dancing world. The dancers I was looking up to were suddenly noticing me because I did a great job of filming and editing videos for them.
Delivering value upfront.
I even build a Facebook page with more than 10,000 fans posting these videos, until Facebook blocked me for audio copyright (well, you need to use songs for dancing videos..which cause copyright issues).
Now I am pivoting again… loving dancing, but knowing that I don't want to do it as a career choice. But I DO KNOW now that I could! I could do it — I proved myself, it was possible.
Anyhoo… Let's get to the 10 lessons learned.
10 Lessons That 365 Days of Dancing Taught Me (Coming from Ex-Entrepreneur)
There is never the right time to do what you want — just do it, and don't live with regrets and “what ifs”;
You can do anything you set your mind to — we have unbelievable access to all the worlds knowledge, there are no excuses;
Always look for ways to add value — I found a way to add value and save some money by making videos. Plus at the same time I built community, that I could use in future to promote other good festivals, courses, make my own courses. Win/win. Look for ways to add value.
Never be the smartest/best person in the room — If I would have stayed in local Latvia dance community, quickly enough I would feel like a great dancer there. But what really made me grow was going to festivals and seeing the world-class dancers all around me. I was nowhere close to them, but I made videos to these people, helped them and in return got to learn from them.
Do what your heart says is right, follow your gut— the more you practice this “gut muscle”, the more it will guide you. I loved dancing every day for a year, but also once I was done with it, my gut feeling told me that. There was no regrets like feelings — “I need to finish this” or “Am I really giving up?”. It just felt like this purpose has been lived up and I need to find the next thing. Right now I am here writing, because the gut feeling told me to write. — “Hey, who am I to judge the gut feeling?”. And if you learn something from this, even the better!
If you want to make more, you need to become more! — this was one of the pivotal moments when I decided to stop with this dancing decision. After the year of being in the dancing world — I was becoming pretty good videographer, yet still noone was ready to pay me. That made me think, how much what I am doing is worth to people. And if it's not a lot, then maybe I should do something else that would be more useful? This started my quest of learning (what I am doing now), reading tons of books, learning the courses — becoming more. Early to tell where it will lead, but gut feeling says it's the right path.
Nothing will fill your heart like great relationships — I didn't want to admit it, but always my calling came in the first place. Relationships always went to 2–3rd place (probably that's why they didn't work out). I was filling my needs for love with not so meaningful dates, while they felt great, there was no deepness. Life was great, I was becoming great at dancing, which in turn made me very attractive to ladies. But problems arose, when I met my dream girl. I loved my non-attachment lifestyle, but she was here now. I dreaded to commit to relationships, but also dreaded the feeling afterwards of letting her go. So I committed. And that was the best decision I've ever made. Instead of hurting my calling, she became the light of my life, inspiring and supporting me when I got down. Lesson learned — even if I still spend a lot of time following my calling, I will NEVER let relationships down because of that.
Be a humble life-long student — if you think you know everything, that's the surest way to close yourself from opportunities to keep learning. Sure, it doesn't feel good being wrong, but if your addiction is learning — your EGO will never take over and you'll become better every day. Arrogance is the biggest thing that can kill you.
Don't take this age of knowledge for granted — we have such unlimited access to unlimited knowledge. We can learn from books, online courses, Youtube, articles. We can learn anything, anytime.
Take care of your body, health, mind — this is something I gained with dancing. I was spending so much time moving, doing activities, reading, thinking. This is something I don't want to give up. When I was in the business, I was constantly in there and sometimes I would forget about calming my mind, exercising and just being, enjoying the moment. This is something I never want to give up. And you know what I believe? — you can design and kind of life you imagine. I don't take no for answer — anywhere anymore!
Take care of yourself first, invest in yourself — and everything else will flow.
What about you? If you look back, what are your top lessons from the last 365 days?
And super curious, if any of the 10 points related to you, let me know!
/Note: This is my first post here, obviously new here, dunno if these topics are right..just felt like writing this and thought to try it on SteemIt!