Friends of Dave #433: 🏆 win your crowd ⚔️
The magic that happens when you catch a groove.
Had a fun conversation with a colleague this week that got me thinking…
He happens to live and work remote in Texas and began our video chat by enthusiastically sharing with me his two current obsessions outside of his job: pickleball and two-step dancing.
Seems like an odd combination, I know…..and I don’t know about you, but I can’t say that I have participated in either activity myself.
I mean, I get the pickleball thing…and I might be one of the last aging Gen-Xers on the planet to have never played. But if I am being honest, I have kinda been viewing at it as the TaeBo of the 2020s….I think Billy Blanks would be cool with my choice to wait for it to cool down a bit before partaking….
On the other hand, living in the Northeastern US, two-step dancing is just not common in these parts. Irish step dancing, yes. But Texas two-step is non-existent. Either way, Friends, I’m pretty certain you don’t want to see your buddy Dave doing either….
That didn’t make the sincere enthusiasm my colleague has for these activities any less infectious. Dude burnt solid company minutes hard selling me on the positive physical and social virtues of both hobbies. Can’t say I shared his passion, but I was both amused by his presentation and genuinely happy for him that he was so locked in on the Two-Stepping Pickleball communities of Texas.
With the two-stepping, he made it clear he is an equal opportunity dancer. He is just there to meet people and have fun and does not discriminate partners based on shape, size, race or sexual orientation. And he has apparently gotten so good at it, patrons of his local two-step hangout have come to mistakenly believe he is an instructor.
He explained to me the joy he has engaging with people that are particularly new to two-stepping. He loves approaching someone who looks terrified to be there and then teaching them a few steps so that they get more comfortable.
“You know how people get when they learn something for the first time? They are so rigid and mechanical,” my friend explained.
“I just love watching someone like that work through the initial awkwardness and then catch a groove. That’s when the magic happens.”
I could totally understand what he was saying.
We all have an uneasiness about us when we are learning a new skill or trying something out of our comfort zone for the first time. Think about it.
We get self-conscious. We second guess ourselves. We over analyze what we are doing. We are worried that we are doing things “wrong” — especially when there isn’t a “right” or “wrong” way to do it. We want to be perfect.
Sometimes this phase can be so overwhelming it makes us want to stop. Maybe even quit altogether.
But, if we keep at it, eventually things usually start to click. We work through those painful early steps, and then we start to get it. We stop overthinking and just start dancing.
We catch a groove….and yes, magic starts to happen.
It’s hard to predict when that moment can happen, but when it happens you know. And it can be equally fun and gratifying watching someone else catch that groove — whether it is two-step dancing or something completely different.
It really is what makes teaching, parenting, coaching and managing fun.
At that point in the story, I needed to find a way to pivot back to the business reason for our call. I told my friend I was really happy for him and appreciated him sharing his enthusiastic account of his current off hour pastimes. I could totally get why he liked participating in it.
“Just to so we are clear, it still doesn’t make me want to go out and find a two-step dancing venue here in my area,” I said.
“But maybe, just maybe, it might be what gets me to go try pickleball.”
🕺😜🏓
XOXO
Dave
And now a few things to make you smarter…
It’s no secret that America’s wealth inequality is increasing. The richest Americans now own nearly a full-third of the country’s total wealth. And within that select group, the top 0.1% own nearly 15% of America’s wealth. This is compared to the around 3% held by the entire bottom 50%. But where exactly is this wealth parked? Here a visualization of the asset breakdown for the top 0.1% and compare it to the bottom 50% with data from the Federal Reserve, current to Q3, 2024.
Mother Ocean does as she does, whether I like it or not. And yet I’m not entirely powerless, when I can trust the world enough to act and skilfully react, in a sort of adaptive attunement.
Consider a wave rising from the ocean’s depth, which is about to crest and peel along a reef or beach. What does it take to be carried along by that wave’s natural propulsive force, let alone surf it well, doing turns with speed, power and flow? Thought provoking piece about the need to firmly accept one’s limited power over the ocean and its waves.
Ever wonder what is the purpose of those jagged pieces of green plastic that resemble grass in your takeout sushi? It turns out it isn’t just for decoration.
Although there are more than a billion cases of the common cold in the US each year—two to four cases on average for each adult, more for children—there has been little progress on a vaccine because of the sheer number of viral strains such a vaccine would need to target. Interestingly, while a universal common cold vaccine remains elusive, many century-old observations about prevention, treatment, and seasonality have stood the test of time.
“Do not give up. Win your crowd.” — Ray Lewis
Trust me, this monologue from John Mulaney’s live Netflix show this Wednesday might be both the funniest and most inspiring story you hear all week. He talks about a time in his life when we failed to get his show picked up on NBC and, looking to get himself back on track, turned to writing advertising copy. It was then he encountered NFL star Ray Lewis and received some unexpected words of encouragement.
Watch it to the end….you might just want to run through a brick wall afterwards….and, maybe (or maybe not) drink beet juice for breakfast.