Jananas

I was watching So You Think You Can Dance last week. [Yeah, I know. I feel ashamed to admit it. However it has made me like watching dance, so I'm going to give it credit.]

In one of the dances, the partners timing was a little bit off. My immediate reaction was to blame the all star for being off. My reaction made me start thinking. I wanted to think that the second person was hitting the marks ‘late’, but how could I tell. Maybe the other person was early.

Where do you anchor your frame of reference? Your starting point can impact your interpretation of the situation. Because I like the personality of the first dancer more, they are less likely to do wrong in my eyes. This is not the same thing as actually being less likely to do wrong. For the most part, we don’t make it past that first statement. We don’t see beyond our own interpretation.

Recognizing this, can I begin to look at the situation more objectively? Can I listen better when someone else talks, because I can give them the benefit of the doubt and don’t jump to conclusions? Can I learn something new because I was open to something different? Can I make better decisions because I took the time to think about and explore the assumptions beneath my snap judgments?

Two words from above jump out at me: Learn & Open. How do you challenge yourself? How do you learn? Are you open to something new?

I’m a little surprised at having such a deep insight with wide application from an episode of SYTYCD.