How a childhood dream becomes the gift you’re living now.
I always wanted to be a dancer.
But after a few dance classes as a child I still remember the little black tuxedo my mom sewed for my tap recital — my parents decided that what I really wanted was piano and art lessons.
They were right. I loved those too.
But then I watched my future dance teacher perform in The Red Shoes, and I couldn’t stop thinking about dancing. The decision had been made, though, so I tried to live with it.
I was already writing little stories for the paper, because I knew I wanted to be a writer too. But dance, dance was the beacon that wouldn’t stop calling.
The Beacon That Wouldn’t Stop Calling
In eighth grade, while I was earning my Girl Scout dance badge, the mom teaching us asked why I wasn’t taking dance lessons. When I told her, she called my parents and said I had potential.
The Choice
They gave me a choice: piano or dance. I chose dance and never regretted it.
There’s more to this story, but let’s skip ahead — to UCLA, where I was a dance major. Ten years older than everyone else, with three kids.
After a few years, I figured out something important. I would never be a great dancer who went on to famous companies and a name in lights.
What I Could Actually Do
But what I could do was help other people become the best dancers they could be.
I’d been teaching since I was sixteen, so when I realized my real gift was choreography and building a company, that’s where I put my energy. I didn’t stop dancing. I changed my focus. And it made me a better dancer — and a better person.
The Power of Noticing
That’s what this post is about.
The power of noticing, and being willing to change.
Taking a constraint, recognizing it, accepting it — and discovering that it opens the door to who you really are.
There’s more, of course. Eventually I had to move on from dance in all its forms, and I went looking for where I could use what that experience had taught me.
I Needed Community
I realized that what I loved about running the company wasn’t only helping others shine. It was the community. I needed community.
That awareness carried me to the next step. I ran groups. I gathered people into masterminds while I figured out what my next “dance company” would be. I knew it would always be about encouraging others to find their gift and express it — but we would do it together.
What that looks like changes over time. The essence of it never does.
Each of us carries a gift that wants to be expressed in service to the whole.
A Different Branch on the Same Tree
What I do today looks nothing like what I did in my youth. But it’s the same thing. A different branch on the same tree.
How we do it isn’t the point. Doing it is.
If you haven’t yet found your gift — because you’re still trying to be someone or something else — then all of us are missing out on the experience of your true self.
Find the Seed
So look back on your early dreams. Find the seed of what you’ve been growing all along.
If you’ve ever planted a garden, you know that something surprising often comes up, something you didn’t expect. But it was the tending of the soil that gave it room to grow.
Life offers us constant opportunities to shift, to change, to see things differently. It’s up to us to notice what it’s trying to show us — and then to step forward into our current expression of the gift that we are, simply by being who we are and sharing it.
This is how we grow a world where listening, empathy, grace, courage, kindness, and unity are the driving forces.
