Dancing with the Stars:Entertainment or Inspiration?

Recently I was talking to a friend about the television show Dancing with the Stars. She told me how much she liked watching it. I know it's popular and two years ago I blogged about how some of the stars had rewired their sagging careers by appearing on the show. It remains one of the highest rated tv shows in U.S. history. I asked myself, what is so terrific that makes viewers tune in to ABC every week since 2005 to watch lesser known stars who are nonprofessional dancers compete for a dance prize that has no monetary value?

I asked my friend why she liked it. Her response was awesome, and it wasn't just because handsome pro football player Hines Ward ( pictured above)appeared on the show and won. She didn't offer just one reason. There were many: seeing the competition, the energy, the costumes, the sacrifice, the raw emotions that overtake the winners and the losers, the willingness of the nonprofessional dancers to stretch themselves in an extremely physically demanding way, watching people who had lost prominence come back into the spotlight and give it their all.

Her last and most important reason summed it up, "They inspire me to want to try something new. Not dancing necessarily, but something that I have never done before and to take the risk that I might fail. I have lived too much in my own comfort zone and the clock is ticking"

In our book, Don't Retire, REWIRE! we advocate trying new things, rewiring personal energy and taking a risk knowing that you might fail. But if you don't try, you will never know if you would have been a failure or succeded to the point that it would change your in very positive ways. Dancing with the Stars is a metaphor for life. Don't forget you can just watch the show and let it be a brief distraction from your everyday life or at its best the show may inspire you to do something new. But ONLY you can take that inspiration and turn it into personal motivation. Whether its to get out there and dance, learn a new sport, try a new career, take a trip to someplace you have never been before, or volunteer to help others. I guess it all comes down to doing the dance of life, and we all know that learning new steps isn't always easy, but if you don't try.... You know what I mean.