What happened when I said yes

I’ve been saving one of my favorite Broadway BootCamp stories for last.

If you’ve been following this series, you’ve heard me talk about doing things I’d never done before, learning to receive a compliment, and realizing just how much the right people can help you grow.

But there’s one more lesson I brought home with me.

Say yes before you’re ready.

Now, I want to be clear about something.

I love to dance.

I’ve been dancing for years, so getting on a dance floor isn’t exactly stepping outside my comfort zone.

But one of our first dance classes at Broadway BootCamp was something completely different.

We had three drag queens teaching us how to vogue.

And I remember thinking, out of all the types of dancing we could be doing…

Why this?

It wasn’t really my style.

The old version of me could have easily thought, “This isn’t for me,” and checked out.

But I’d made a decision before I even got to New York.

I was going to say yes.

Years ago, when I first moved to Japan, I adopted a philosophy that basically came down to this:

Try everything once.

If I don’t like it, I don’t have to do it again.

But I’ll try it once.

So that’s what I did.

Whatever they threw at us, I was going to give it a shot.

And there I was, along with about 20 other people, trying to figure out how to vogue, strut and bend our arms without looking completely ridiculous.

And you know what?

It was so much fun.

There was something incredibly freeing about just letting go and going for it.

Nobody was worried about being perfect.

Nobody was there to judge anybody else.

We were all just learning something new and having a great time.

And that got me thinking about how often we do the opposite in our everyday lives.

We decide something isn’t for us before we’ve even tried it.

We say:

“That’s not really my thing.”

“I don’t think I’d like that.”

“I’ve never done anything like that before.”

And sometimes we’re right.

But sometimes we’re not.

Sometimes we’re just protecting ourselves from the possibility of being uncomfortable.

And if there’s one thing Broadway reminded me of, it’s that being uncomfortable doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing something wrong.

Sometimes it means you’re experiencing something new.

So maybe there’s something you’ve been saying no to lately.

A new idea.

A new experience.

A new opportunity.

Maybe you don’t have to commit to doing it forever.

Maybe you just need to try it once.

You might discover that you love it.

And even if you don’t, you’ll know you gave yourself the chance to find out.

So that’s my final lesson from Broadway:

Say yes. Try it once. See what happens.

And that brings me to the end of my four Lessons from Broadway.

Thank you for coming along with me over the past few weeks. I’ve really enjoyed going back through this experience and sharing some of the things that stuck with me.

Proactive, Productive, and Profitable,
Dino