25. STEP BY STEP

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Welcome to Episode 25 of the Salsa Kings LIVE podcast!

This week, Andres is going to us about how impatient the world is and how that can be something to be mindful of in dance in particular. However, with the dawn of the internet, children are learning more quickly and gaining skills on a level that we can find disorienting. However, with dance there is a need for time and experience that is required for dance.

Andres calls back to how he wants people to respect their roots, and have respect not just for people who are teaching you, but also people who have experience and time under their belt. Just because you have developed the skills quickly does not automatically put you on the same level as someone who has logged the hours and knows how the dance goes.

Andres encourages us to enjoy this journey ‘step by step’. He talks about how feeling like you have dips, backslides, and plateaus are a natural part of being a dancer, and only by putting in the time can adjust and overcome them. Too many dancers think that once they’ve reached an endpoint that they’re done.

Andres urges people to not stop there. If you want to become a truly great dancer, you have to be willing to constantly reinvent yourself and find new goals and heights to reach for. You can only see next goal completely once you’ve completed your current goal is. Planning is good and needed, but you also need to know that you will change and grow. If you try to plan everything out, you’ll end up paralyzing yourself with doubt and hesitation, because there’s no way you can know everything that will come up.

Small goals are also admirable and a good way to go across to bigger goals, but ultimately you have to be willing to go step by step and involve others who are on your level, beyond you, and not at your skill level yet. All of these are part of your step by step process.

The mindset is also just as important as the work ethic itself. Being willing to grow and change and learn as you work, being able to love that slow burn is key to finishing your journey. If you’ve hit a plateau, then you may just need to be willing to take it step by step.

“Something that’s simple to understand, but not necessarily easy to do, but I challenge you to  respect time; slow down. Breathe, in and throughout your day, good or bad. The bad in perspective is necessary. It is extremely important that you cannot have one without the other and your bad days are the opportunity that you can learn and perhaps avoid that same scenario or mistake again.”