Remember in school when the teacher asked a question and you shrank down in your seat hoping he’d call on someone else? No one wanted to go first. Years later, at my very first dance, I quickly realized that waiting for someone to ask me could take forever. Life was too short to just stand there like a dope. Sure, it felt a little awkward, but somebody had to go first!
These days I don’t need motivation. Most mornings find me walking fast, wearing headphones and singing along with the songs on my playlist. When the beat is good, I have to dance. It’s innate. I simply cannot stop myself. If the sun is behind me, I dance with my shadow. Rarely a day passes that I’m not able to cajole at least one other person into moving or singing right along with me.
Recently, a fellow pickleball player, whom I’ve only known from a distance, motioned me over to his court. He’s at least 30 years younger and a fine player.
“Someday,” he confided, “I hope to be more like you: freer and not so self-conscious.”
Now how often does a young guy tell an old gal he wants to be more like her? He didn’t just make my day. He made my YEAR! If everyone were a little ‘freer’ life would be more joyful. If people said the kind things they’re thinking, like he did, imagine the result? Look, I’m not a good dancer but who cares? I just let the music move me and shut everything and everyone else out.
It’s the same advice I give to my clients. “Focus on yourself, not some idiot you don’t even know on Instagram.” No one else’s life is more interesting than yours. So, if you’re saving your dance moves for the casket, be sure they bury you in tap shoes. If you’re keeping your feelings to yourself in case they’re not reciprocated? Might as well swallow your tongue. It’s wasted in your mouth.
Look, you can be the critical jackass who silently judges and criticizes others, or you can be the one who goes first; the one who gives someone else the freedom to follow their bliss, too. Isn’t it time you set your own bar instead of doing backbends under everyone else’s? May 2026 inspire you to be as brave, bold and beautiful as these dancers are!
AGEFULLY AGING 
Leave a comment