Work-Life-Dance Balance – Prologue

I’m sure many of us have heard the phrase “work-life balance” thrown around and are often trying to figure it out.  In my full-time job we hear this phrase more often as we deal with stress of deadlines and/or when we work more hours than planned.  Having a job where I’m sitting for extended periods of time is not great because circulation is slowed and the ergonomics are not ideal and/or financial feasible to rectify.

So how do I deal with my work-life balance?  I dance.

I’ve always danced in my life, either for large chunks at a time or sporadically when I didn’t know of classes that existed near me.  When I discovered belly dance my work-life balance became a work-life-dance balance challenge. I love dance and sometimes wonder if I could have done it full-time as a career.  Perhaps, if the conditions were right I might have been able to focus on just dance however, I have other interests in other creative and technical avenues that my day job and renewed crafting satisfy.  Now trying to balance work, life and dance are interesting. My day job is a large chunk of my life; it’s necessary because it pays my living expenses and extra dance treats when my dance teaching doesn’t cover the costs I spend in dance.  I count myself very fortunate to have a full-time job that I really enjoy. I’ve worked with mostly the same group of people for the last 18 years! Like any job there are ups and downs but one thing I can say is that the flexibility in the hours has helped with the work-life balance portion and even when I do daytime performance it aids in the work-life-dance balance.

So why do I add dance to the work-life balance phrase?  Well for me, dance is a big part of my life and I kind of feel it is separate from my life which I consider to be my personal relationships.  Many of friends are dancers so meeting up often involves seeing each other at dance shows and/or workshop. However, sometimes you need to find time outside of dance to meet and just hang out and/or explore other things in the world, like hiking, movies, picnics, crafting circles etc.  Then there are also my personal goals I have with respect to my dance. During 2018, I was hanging out with my friend talking dance and I was encouraged to try doing a dance competition. I had tried a competition back in 2012 and I was completely unprepared; completely unprepared. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go down that road as competitions require a lot of work and dedication.  However, because I’m a goal oriented person and I like to continue to grow as a dancer with new challenges I decided to take on the competition challenge. So now the challenge of having a full-time job, teaching dance, taking workshops and/or hosting workshops, having personal relationships and preparing for a competition have made me realize that I’m really balancing, work, life and dance.  The competition is October 2019 so this year will definitely pull me somewhat out of my comfort zone. Wish me luck!