Recently, a successful friend of mine shared a book with me - Gary Keller's the ONE Thing. This is another book about personal development among many others that I read lately. My friend strongly suggested me to read this one because when she read this book twice and followed what the book suggested her to do, and that lead her to success, at least she thinks so.
This book is all about priority, productivity and purpose. How the key to "Success" is to focus on only ONE thing. It suggests the idea that focusing on too many things at the same time would get you nowhere and lead you to mediocrity. The only way stand out and be successful is to know where you want to go, and stick to that one direction.
In a week's time I finished 2/3 of the book, myself am amazed by how fast I read it! I consider that I read this book at the right moment. I am now in a situation where I have several focuses: studies and ballet. So am I doing the opposite of what I should do? Maybe not, one thing at a time. For instance, during the last three weeks, my ONE thing was this year's promotional contest, the holy "Concours de Promotion" at the Paris Opera Ballet. That was my ONE thing, I had no doubt of it. So I asked my business school for a break that they so kindly accepted. So this Concours Preparation was my only focus for three weeks.
This Concours seemed so tough to me last time that I was a bit scared about it at the beginning. But finally, this year seemed much more enjoyable to me. I told myself, it's all about competing with yourself, not with the others (much easier to say than to actually do). I would not practice like crazy, I would enjoy the the process, respect my body and my physical limits, and work intelligently.
This book is all about priority, productivity and purpose. How the key to "Success" is to focus on only ONE thing. It suggests the idea that focusing on too many things at the same time would get you nowhere and lead you to mediocrity. The only way stand out and be successful is to know where you want to go, and stick to that one direction.
In a week's time I finished 2/3 of the book, myself am amazed by how fast I read it! I consider that I read this book at the right moment. I am now in a situation where I have several focuses: studies and ballet. So am I doing the opposite of what I should do? Maybe not, one thing at a time. For instance, during the last three weeks, my ONE thing was this year's promotional contest, the holy "Concours de Promotion" at the Paris Opera Ballet. That was my ONE thing, I had no doubt of it. So I asked my business school for a break that they so kindly accepted. So this Concours Preparation was my only focus for three weeks.
This Concours seemed so tough to me last time that I was a bit scared about it at the beginning. But finally, this year seemed much more enjoyable to me. I told myself, it's all about competing with yourself, not with the others (much easier to say than to actually do). I would not practice like crazy, I would enjoy the the process, respect my body and my physical limits, and work intelligently.
And that worked, it is so satisfying to see my dancing improves constantly. On 8th February 13:56:46, I signed up for the concours. Thinking about where this paper would bring me 3 weeks later, I took a photo of it. I am especially happy with this year's variations: La Sylphide (Pierre Lacotte) as the 1st compulsory variation, and I chose a difficult but fun variation, Jerome Robbin's Automne variation from the Four Seasons. I have done La Sylphide a lot so it's very suitable for my technique. I thought, this concours might be "my" concours.
Unlike last year, I prepared everything in advance. Here I tried Automne's costume. "It suits you perfectly!", said the tailor. Once again I thought: "this concours might be mine..."
Last year, I would arrive at 6:45 am at the Opera to book the best studio for practicing. This time I won't! I decided not to get that crazy again and just take whatever I have when I arrive there.
However, like last year, rehearsals and performances continue. As an understudy in the rehearsals, once again I asked myself what is my ONE thing? Obviously, my ONE thing was the Concours and not the rehearsals. Each time when I go on that emblematic stage I think of the Concours. At a point I got excited about going on that stage and doing my variations on the day of the Concours, showing to the company and to Paris that a dancer can study at the same time. Until then, my Concours preparation was very pleasant yet fruitful, I was proud of it. But Life always reserves us surprises.
This week, I witnessed how the ballet world, being a ballet dancer, is somehow just like any other job. In a professional environment, people and values are not quite the same. Suddenly, I really missed the time when we were still students, when we were all going towards the same direction, when we were learning and growing happily together. It changed. Something happened and profoundly shocked me. Made me quite upset and so disappointed. The next day, I twisted my ankle. I got tired of the situation. The Concours would be for next time. Surprisingly, even though I torn a ligament in the ankle, it didn’t hurt, not even a bit, my heart did.
So this year’s Concours experience ended there for me. It was quite an experience. Never mind, I always have my studies to fall back on, and that became my ONE thing now.
So this year’s Concours experience ended there for me. It was quite an experience. Never mind, I always have my studies to fall back on, and that became my ONE thing now.
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