What do you do when you just can’t find a way through?
Last week I made the decision to go ALL IN with my Impossible Project (performing a exotic dragon dance) by picking a date and booking a location. I even announced it in this weekly email.
But I didn’t see the obstacles coming.
When I was back in the States and Googled dance studios in the Algarve region of Portugal, there were a couple compelling options. I neglected to consider “trivial” things like slow response time and holidays.
I also don’t have a car here in Portugal. So I’ll need to depend on public transportation, Uber or a rental car to get anywhere outside of walking distance. All of these things work just a little differently around here.
My American assumptions of instant access were vastly challenged.
After sending dozens of messages and making phone calls – most of them still without a response after several days – my options are slim.
Unless someone miraculously gets back to me, it looks like my best bet for a place to practice and an instructor to help are in Lisbon, a 3 hour train ride away. Not the most practical solution with all the work left for me to do.
I’m so ready to sprint to the finish, and I thought I’d discovered some very creative solutions to make it happen, but…
Some things are just out of my control.
So what do you do when obstacles you can’t control stand in your way?
Well, if you’re me right now, you have yourself a good SULK.
I’m feeling disappointed and a little sorry for myself. Maybe I’m even wallowing a little bit.
Maybe this won’t happen by the end of the month. After all, it is called an impossible project, especially trying to pull it off while traveling across Florida and now in another country. (Maybe I should have paid closer attention each time an instructor said, “Where will you be doing your performance?” instead of brushing it off with the assumption that part would be easily managed.)
Ack. See how unkind I’m being to myself?
Honestly, I don’t know how it will go from here. My sense is that I’ll regroup, probably within a matter of hours if not minutes, and come back ready for another round of creation. Maybe I’ll give myself more time to pull this together.
What I do know is that this discouragement will pass.
Before I know it, I won’t be thinking these defeated thoughts, and there will be room for a whole new experience.
Even now my partner is calling me for a cuddle, which I’ve been stubbornly resisting because I prefer to wallow in disappointment a little longer. Isn’t that crazy?
A whole world of delights to enjoy, and I’m sitting in my own thought-created mud puddle complaining about being cold and wet.
Is that my sense of humor coming back?
Thank goodness.
Steph
P.S. This weekend, I finally heard back from one of the dance instructors I’d contacted! The one I was hoping for who seems perfect. 🙂
They were in Asia on a long holiday with sporadic internet access.
All is not lost!
However, almost three weeks passed without any significant progress or practice, and with a trip to Italy coming at the end of the month…
…I’m not going to meet my impossible deadline.
I’ve decided to postpone my performance until June. This gives me more time to plan and practice.
So the game is still afoot! Delayed, but not defeated.
The moral of the story, at least for me, is to keep going and let the creation reveal its own timing. The path will open if I keep doing the Now Thing.
