When a farmer tills soil and plants seeds he doesn't expect to harvest a crop the next day. He knows that he'll have to invest consistent work over the course of weeks or months before those seeds will bear fruit. Weeding. Watering. Cultivating. Rain or shine.
Sometimes when we take a tango lesson, we lose sight of the wisdom of the farmer. We want to see results. If we don't notice improvement right away, we may wonder whether the lesson was worthwhile. Or worse, we may begin to question our own abilities.
If a garden doesn't produce vegetables in a day, the farmer doesn't become frustrated. There's nothing wrong with his garden. The farmer knows that growth is a process that occurs over time. Similarly, there's nothing wrong with US, and there was nothing wrong with the lesson or the class just because we don't notice immediate improvement. Improvement requires growth, and - yes, that's correct - growth is a process that occurs over time.
The lesson itself is analogous to the planting of the seeds. The practice that we invest over the following weeks and months will help the seeds (i.e. our new steps and techniques) to blossom and grow. If we continue to do the right things consistently week after week, we'll see improvement. We'll have our results.
Will the results be what we expect them to be? A first time farmer shouldn't expect to raise a champion pumpkin in his first growing season. He'll repeat the process season after season, making adjustments along the way. Prepare the soil. Plant the seed. Water and weed as needed. Next time his crop will be a little better. Success builds upon success in small steps.
Like the farmer, we'll see the results of our efforts over time, but we CANNOT see the improvement happening. Improvement is imperceptible. It's like watching the ocean evaporate. It does evaporate, and we can see the clouds that the process creates. But we can't see the process itself. Have you ever tried to watch a tomato plant grow? Yet, grow they do. We've all seen the tomatoes that come from those plants.
The same principle applies in our dancing. We have to be content to see the milestones as we pass them. We have to trust that the imperceptible growth process is happening even though we can't see it. This requires patience and a measure of faith. And it requires persistence, the persistence to keep doing the right things in the right way as we let our eventual improvement take care of itself.
¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!
Daniel
Copyright © 2012 The Exploring Tango Blog
exploringtango.blogspot.com
All Rights Reserved
Thank you. This was a timely one for me.
ReplyDelete