” You make that look effortless. You’re talking to me, on your phone and hula hooping all at the same time”

This remark came from two separate conversations when I was hooping down at the beach yesterday.

It made my day to hear this. To me, it is the greatest compliment that I could receive, and to receive it from two completely separate people was amazing.

Why?

Growing up as a dancer, I was taught that one of your objectives is to make your dancing look effortless. If you can do that, then you are truly dancing well.

Effortless dancing should make the person watching think that they could do it. It should make them think, surely it can’t be that hard. It looks so easy.

Yet only you know how hard it really is.

Only you know how many hours and how much practice you have put in. All the times you looked awkward or made mistakes. All the times you struggled and thought you would never get it. All the times you felt so close, but were frustrated because you just couldn’t get it quite right. All the times you thought, maybe I should just quit now. But when you finally get to that effortless place, you’ll know it was completely worth it.

In my case, getting to effortless has been many months. The below video probably is a good indication of what my skills now look like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbNY9gapNSE

Even now, when I look at that, as much as I am proud, I know that I still have so much to learn, practice and refine.

Because:

Effortless is a learned skill.

Effortless needs patience.

Effortless requires hours of work.

 

But effortless is always worth it.