LOVE IS A DANCE
Posted on June 26, 2013 by Dr Zannah Hackett, One of Thousands of Relationship Coaches on Noomii.
Knowing how to move in a relationship.
“Do what you love and the money will come.”
How many times have we heard that?
Business professionals and executive coaches can spend session after session helping people gain clarity about what needs to change, their career, their position, their environment, their relationships, or perhaps themselves.
And there is that word: “CHANGE.”
It is one of the few things in life we can absolutely count on. Yet our ability to move with change may also be at the very heart of our ability to love, and to love well enough to succeed.
We spend a great deal of time teaching people how to perform their jobs, but very little time teaching them how to develop a healthy relationship with their work. How do we embrace responsibility? Navigate differences? Work alongside people whose personalities, priorities, and communication styles are nothing like our own? How do we remain engaged when a job becomes difficult, repetitive, or simply isn’t what we imagined it would be?
For many people, work becomes a means to an end.
Interestingly, the word “LOVE” is rarely found in executive conversations, business forums, or employment discussions. Yet I believe love has everything to do with achieving success naturally.
When what we do is aligned with who we naturally are, effort can actually give us energy rather than continually taking it away.
Over the years, I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, “I don’t even know what love looks like,” or, “I’m not sure I know what love feels like.”
Perhaps that is because we have been looking for the wrong thing.
“Love isn’t simply a look or a feeling. Love is movement.”
Love is our ability to adjust, flex, and flow through both harmony and adversity. It is knowing when to shift gears, change the plan, step forward, step back, take charge, surrender control, organize, disrupt, laugh, cry or even disappear for a while when giving someone space serves the situation better.
Love moves.
Problems arise when we become glued to an expectation of how something or someone is supposed to turn out. We become so attached to the desired outcome that the result becomes more important than the relationships carrying us toward it.
And therein lies one of life’s greatest lessons:
“It is always about the relationships.”
Our relationship with our work.
Our relationship with success.
Our relationship with change.
Our relationship with others.
And ultimately, our relationship with ourselves.
Love within any relationship is an exquisitely improvised piece of choreography, continually revealing new sequences as circumstances change. It may begin as a soft prelude, but over time, the steps we take become a reflection of the choices we make.
So perhaps the more meaningful question isn’t simply, “Do you love what you do?”
Ask yourself:
“How well do I move through my life?”
How well do I adapt when circumstances change? How well do I manage the relationships entrusted to me? Can I move forward when necessary, step aside when appropriate, and recognize the difference?
Because perhaps success isn’t found only in doing what you love.
“Perhaps it is also found in learning how to LOVE well.”
And if you can move well through the changing rhythms of life, work, and relationships, chances are you’re already learning how.
“Move well. Love well. Live well.”
