The 3 things I learned from our attempts to execute a skating dance program.

The Big Breakfast decided to honour the arrival of Skate Canada International in Kelowna with an attempt at a dance program, yes, on skates. These athletes are amazing and what a great way to highlight just how amazing by attempting to do even a smidge of what they do on a regular bases! Really.. what could go wrong?

A big thank you to the Mt. Boucherie Skating Club for providing us with ice time and the expertise of Anne McGraw and Steve Muff to help us get through this. What an amazing positive environment they have built for their athletes!

From a “life” perspective I learned a few important things from this experience!

1. Team building at it’s finest.

Often companies put staff through “team building” workshops. If you need to learn fast the if and how of working with someone, put a pair of skates on your feet, get the music and coaching you need,  and tell them you want to see a dance program in 2 months. I learned that I am one lucky person to be working with John. Supportive, fun, consistent and kind, truly a blessing. I also learned that when it comes to defining roles within our partnership, one of us is defiantly the brains, and the other the enthusiasm. Not that either is lacking, we just natural fall under certain headings. I will let you figure out who is what..  I’m pretty sure it’s fairly obvious.

2. You can do anything.

It sounds so trite but it’s true. A number of the people watching us go through the process and sharing ice time with their kids said (repeatedly) “I could  never do that,” or “I am living through you, I have always wanted to skate.” YOU CAN. It might not be pretty, or easy but YOU CAN. As a matter of fact Mt. Boucherie has an adult Can – Skate session on Friday evenings. I am going to go, perhaps you would like to join me?

At what age do we stop believing we can do anything? At what age do we start? I have come to realize that as a child, I didn’t think I could do anything, everyone else just seemed so much better than me at everything, so why try? It wasn’t until I was an “adult” that I figured out that I truly could “do anything” that doesn’t mean I would be good at it, or even enjoy it, but I sure could do it and find out if I want to continue.

3.   It’s Okay not to be the best.

I still battle with this one. Somewhere, pretty early on in my upbringing I got it into my head that you didn’t pursue something if you didn’t have the potential to be at the top of your field. The concept of just doing something for fun has been pretty alien to me for most of my life, as you can imagine this has present a few issues over the years.  I had my first break through when I started to do triathlon many years ago. I was dead last at my first tri and never really got much past that in the next 10 or so I did. I still struggle with the “because it’s fun” concept. When parents talk about how important having winners and losers is I just want to pull my hair out. Seriously, teach kids to have fun.. to do their best.. but just have fun, sometimes it has nothing to do with “winning.”

Sum up: I am the enthusiasm and John is the brains and I am very lucky to call him partner with The Big Breakfast at Q103.1.  You can do anything. It might not be pretty but you can. It’s not always about being the best, and we need to teach our kids that.