A year is much too long. I wanted to learn to swing dance, coming from a starting point of absolute incompetence. I took lessons once a week for about 20 weeks, and practiced 3 nights a week. Halfway through I was very comfortable, and could have continued without the lessons. By the end I was very good. It's not that hard. And if I knew it was that easy...
Dance in a Year
31–40 of 78 posts
Re: Dance in a Year
#32A year is much too long. I wanted to learn to swing dance, coming from a starting point of absolute incompetence. I took lessons once a week for about 20 weeks, and practiced 3 nights a week. Halfway through I was very comfortable, and could have continued without the lessons. By the end I was very good. It's not that hard. And if I knew it was that easy...
Same thing with lifting, I dropped over 100 lb and got crazy strong in just under a year. 315lb squat, 450 deadlift, 225 bench and I shed all the fat.
Anything you dedicate around a year on, you'll get good at.
Re: Dance in a Year
#33I did the same thing when I passed the Morse code exams for ham radio license years ago. 20 minutes of CW practice in the morning and evening, every day for several months. When I sat for the exams, the test was ridiculously easy.
Re: Dance in a Year
#34I started doing Salsa over a year ago, and more recently Bachata. Probably the single best scary decision I've ever made. It's my view that when you're dancing, I mean really dancing, everything else just fades away. It's just you, the music, and if it's a partner dance, your partner. It's practically a form of meditation. Probably one of the ultimate cures for depression.
I also suggest trying Kizomba. Whole new interesting experience.
I've done a couple of taster classes at clubs, but haven't done any proper lessons yet. I do like the sensuality of it though.
Re: Dance in a Year
#35Is this a Lift.do viral?
Possible, but a well-done one if so.
Name-dropping only Lift does seem slightly conspicuous because it's so specific and practical, it doesn't fit with the more general self-help motivational stuff in the rest of the page.
Re: Dance in a Year
#36Her post is spot on. Daily practice does pay off and can work for any discipline. I often say this to my guys whenever they ask me how I'm able to write code so fast and elegantly. Back story, I'm much younger than they are (29 as opposed to 35+). I was decent at writing software, but still wasn't that great. I'm a lot better than I am two years ago, but it was the result of learning little things everyday. There's a…
So the obvious question: What did you focus on that let you improve way more than other people? I do write code and learn something new every day and while I would say that I have improved a lot in the last few years I am still ways away of where I would like to be. Somehow I have the feeling this is not going to change.
I imagine that everyone has to decide specifically where they want to improve and figure out how to work precisely on that, but I would be interested to hear what exactly has worked for you?
Re: Dance in a Year
#37This reminded me a lot of a previous HN story about a guy who did a sketch and painting every day for a year. The results from start to finish were stunning: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=870
Was a fascinating journey, if you are like me and want to see a quick before-after without combing through 70 pages of forum posts, here is how good the gentleman got:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=870&p=3460...
Re: Dance in a Year
#38A year is much too long. I wanted to learn to swing dance, coming from a starting point of absolute incompetence. I took lessons once a week for about 20 weeks, and practiced 3 nights a week. Halfway through I was very comfortable, and could have continued without the lessons. By the end I was very good. It's not that hard. And if I knew it was that easy...
Same thing with lifting, I dropped over 100 lb and got crazy strong in just under a year. 315lb squat, 450 deadlift, 225 bench and I shed all the fat. Anything you dedicate around a year on, you'll get good at.
At what age?
Re: Dance in a Year
#39Dan has been working for 3 years now toward completing 10,000 hours of practice with the goal of getting into the PGA - http://thedanplan.com/about/
Re: Dance in a Year
#40The key part of the article for me is this:
I don't practice every day because I'm disciplined. I practice every day because I'm obsessed. I love dancing and my body craves it. If I didn't have this raw hunger, there's no way I would've had the discipline to practice every day.
This raw hunger is the part you can't fake. You might think you want something, but once you take a few steps toward it, you lose your drive. The trick seems to be connecting with a deep-down genuine intuitive desire and going with it. Once you're on that train, it's hard to imagine not walking the path towards your goal every day. More interesting than how to walk the path, for me, is how to find genuine hunger inside yourself...