Mark Twain once wrote, "Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth." This past fall my husband and I began taking ballroom dance classes only to learn that it's not as easy as it appears to be on Dancing with the Stars!

As an educator I am always interested in the pedagogy of learning. Pedagogy refers to the progressive order to what one needs to learn first, second, third and so on for an entire body of knowledge to be mastered.

When it comes to dancing, as well as life, what I am realizing through our dance lessons is that whether it be dancing, or business, or relationships, there is always room for additional learning to enrich my experiences. There are countless ways in which to dance through how life unfolds.

So far we've learned the Waltz, Fox Trot, Rumba and the Cha-Cha-Cha. During our first dance lesson I was shocked at the muscles I suddenly felt being used in my legs that I didn't even know existed. There was a burning sensation going on in my legs that I had not experienced in a very long time.

Every dance step was repeated numerous times while our mind-body connection started to carve out new neurological pathways, which in turn form new roadways, which become the highways to dancing ease and (hopefully) grace!

I was very aware that with each dance step we were learning, my mind was a bit bored, as we had to practice these "small steps" over and over and over again. But then, the instructor put on the music and suddenly, I was being transported into a World of Disney and make-believe! I remember thinking just how wonderful dancing is! The music gave me something to look forward to, and so I felt myself becoming quite patient with the "small steps" and the repetition required for learning to dance.

With each new step we take in our dance classes, our minds are opening to new possibilities beyond what we could have even imagined that very first class. Learning to dance reminds me so much of MasterMinding because each week that you meet with your partners, you are exploring your own learning and readiness curves. Learning to set clearer and more concise intentions each week that will undoubtedly take you to new levels of learning.

I talk with you about MasterMinding each week because it is similar to the magic that our dance instructor knows. She knows how dance transports people to the "great out there" and she is compelled to teach and reach everyone who comes to her wanting to know more.

After two consecutive group dance classes, we decided to start the new year off by signing up for individualized instruction. That first cold January night we stood in front of our dance instructor, feeling quite uncomfortable. For the first time since we began taking dance lessons, we had no other people to hide behind!

Being fifty-something, and having spoken to tens of thousands of people from the stage, I was delightedly surprised at the vulnerability I felt in those early moments of the one-on-one instruction my husband and I were about to receive. As she began to introduce more complicated steps and moves, we both felt our brains resist the new learning. Our bodies were not used to following our minds directions in these ways.

How wonderful this is, I thought, to be experiencing this new learning and such an amazing expansion of what all life has to offer.

Learning to dance is providing me with so much I'm excited to visit with you about in the upcoming weeks and months. Like the first time we went to a ballroom to dance alongside those who have been at this for a very long time: my perceptions and fears, and how they've changed me in amazing ways.

For today, I want to invite you to consider committing to learning something new in an area of your life that will make you manageably uncomfortable. If you've never tried MasterMinding, you can take it out for a spin by reading my free articles at my website.

If you've been wanting to advance your pay and career, I have included excerpts from my books, in this week's newsletter, that will help you try some new steps you can practice over and over and over again, until you've formed highly effective highways for successfully driving through some of life's character building moments!

Make it a GREAT day ... LEARN something new!

Mary