I Hope You Danced

Have you had a chance to Do the Hustle yet? It’s okay if you dance to a different tune, just make sure you dance. If you’re not familiar with Lee Ann Womack’s popular song, “I Hope You Dance,” you should take a look at the lyrics some time. Here’s a quick excerpt: I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance/ Never settle for the path of least resistance/ Living might mean taking chances/ But they're worth taking… Isn’t it time you took a chance on your dreams? In this economy, there’s a lot less to lose.

Embracing Re-Vision

One aspect of finding your hustle that I didn’t speak to in my last blog is something that might seem totally unrelated. It’s the idea of what I call Re-Vision. Back in the day, folks would speak of taking stock of your life; well, this is pretty much along those lines. Re-Vision is reassessing where you are and where you want to be at any given point in your life. I find myself going through the process at certain milestones: hitting 30, having a child, changing jobs. Those were the moments when I reconsidered what really mattered to me and what/who I was working for when all was said and done.

Writing is one of my first loves, especially creative writing. And one thing I’ve learned well, something that I try to instill in my students, is that revision—updating the original work so that it’s more polished—is just as important as the initial writing itself. The same goes for our goals. They may not be perfect the first time through; or, they may need tweaking at some point, as you take a look at your outcomes and determine successes vs. teaching moments (failure is in the eye of the beholder). It's okay to start over.

Teaching the Teacher

My husband and I experienced a Re-Vision teaching moment very recently. At the beginning of the summer, we decided that we were going to sell our townhouse and buy a larger single-family home so that we could take advantage of the amazing interest rates that abounded at the time. We figured we had valid reasons. For one thing, a lot had changed over the five years since we’d moved into our home. The biggest change was the fact that when we bought it, we had no children; now, we have three. Still, we were able to fit pretty comfortably in the space, since there are three bedrooms.

Whatever the case, we were on a mission to move on up. So, motivated by our new prospects, we fixed up, cleaned up and spent a good amount of money on getting our place “show ready.” What we didn’t expect was the amount of stress that would be involved in keeping it that way with three small children. It was an interesting process.

We spent many a gallon of gas driving around looking for areas in which we’d like to settle down again—some as close as down the street, and others as much as 40 minutes away. But nothing seemed to be just right for us. An all-too-common comment we’d make to each other was, “This is not an upgrade.” Finally, about six weeks or so into the process, we realized that we were pretty happy with what we have, especially for the price in comparison to the houses we were viewing. We actually found a new appreciation for our home as a result of the search. In the end, I was able to swallow my pride, along with my wallet, and make a new plan with the hubby. We figure a larger vehicle is more feasible, and more affordable, in the near future.

My Little Cha-Cha

Okay, I’ll admit that the hustle is a little before my time, though I have some vague memories of it from childhood (lol). So I’ll switch over to one of my more recent dances of choice, the “Cha-Cha.” You know, “Cha-cha one time…” Anyway, I figured that it was only fair to give you an update on my own dance moves since the Hustle blog. I’ve actually done my share of research and applied for some freelance positions online that would allow me to work at my own pace, even during the school year. I told my hubby earlier this evening, “I wish the thought had just hit me at the beginning of the summer!” Hey, genius is no respecter of time, right? Well, I’ll keep you posted on my progress, if you’ll keep me up to speed on yours.

Ever dreaming,

Regina