What if everything was low stakes?

I’ve been learning to rope flow for several weeks. It’s a challenge to learn new movements and coordinate my body but it’s fun. I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself to do it. What’s amazing is that I can spend time practicing, take a break from it for a few days, and then come back to it with more mastery than before the break.

The way I’ve approached learning rope flow has changed my experience of learning to dance the Argentine Tango. In the past, I would put a lot of pressure on myself to get it right. In my mind, the stakes were higher because I was dancing with others and I believed that getting it right would prevent being judged as a bad dancer. The problem was that no matter how hard I worked at it, it was never right enough and I wasn’t having any fun.

Then I realized that learning Tango can be like how I’m learning rope flow. Be easy on myself. No pressure to get it right. I’m just learning skills. Since this shift, I’ve been having more fun learning and dancing. And, I’m getting better faster.

So this got me thinking about how I’ve been approaching my coaching business. I’ve been putting a ton of pressure on myself to get it right because the stakes appear even higher. I need to earn money, pay bills, etc. But honestly, it has felt like a chore, I’m not having much fun, and it doesn’t feel like there’s much traction.

Does this actually have higher stakes? Perhaps I’ve merely assigned it as so.

I start to wonder what’s possible if I approach growing my coaching business with the same low-stakes attitude as I have with learning rope flow or Tango.