pink tutuWhen I was about 6 years old my mother enrolled me in ballet classes. I suspect she did this, in part, because of the many hours I spent twirling and swooping around the living room of my grandmother’s studio apartment to a tinny Nutcracker Suite played on scratched 45’s (anyone remember those?). Plus, that was just one of those things that little girls did way back in the “Mad Men” days, take ballet lessons.

My mother was a woman of impeccable taste with excellent fashion sense. She had a definite vision of how her ballerina would look. She searched long and hard to find the perfect leotard; black, long-sleeved and turtle necked.

I hated it. It was hot and uncomfortable and almost impossible to zip up by myself. My vision of Kerry as a ballerina featured a pink tutu.

Every week I would walk to the ballet studio, climb in to my black long sleeved, turtle necked leotard and join my more conventionally garbed classmates at the barre. First position, second position, plié, watch your hand position, foot on the barre, stretch… I worked hard (and sweated, that leotard was hot) in class and diligently practiced at home. One day I would be a real ballerina and finally get to wear that tutu.

Then we had our first recital. I was terrible. I was so bad that even I knew I was terrible. When my mother realized that I was more of a dying duck than a graceful swan the lessons ended.

I never had to put on that damned leotard again but I never got the tutu either. However, as I tell my clients, it’s never too late. Never too late to start something new. Never too late to explore that long buried desire. Never too late to start living the happy, adventurous life you dreamed of as a child.

So now I’m shopping for a tutu. Don’t know where I’ll wear it but I can tell you it will be pink and now I want it to include little blinking lights too.

How about you? What are some of your long neglected desires? Ballet lessons? That box of 64 crayons with the built in sharpener? To write the Great American Novel, or become an accomplished artist? What’s stopping you from getting started now?

Some dreams will be easy to fulfill; buying your own tutu and big beautiful box of crayons (I love how they smell). Others are more about the journey than the destination. You may never write the Great American Novel or paint a masterpiece but unless you start you’ll never know if you could, or even if you really want to. Writing dreadful prose, painting terrible pictures, and performing poorly in dance recitals is how the master’s all started . They kept going because they loved the journey.

So start. You might be terrible but you will get better. Or you may find, like me, you really only wanted the tutu.

Not everyone is in touch with those long lost dreams. Are you ready to rediscover your playful inner child and bringing that joyful energy back into your daily life? I invite you to check out the ways we can work together to make that happen for you: How You Can Work (Play) With Me