Revisiting The Dip

Two years ago, I started dancing Lindy Hop, the original swing dance, which originated in Harlem in the 1930s. I've become a huge fan of dancing Lindy Hop to live big band jazz.

I've been taking private and group lessons each week, go out social dancing at least once a week, and travel to Lindy Hop festivals.

Several months ago, I hit a plateau. I didn’t feel like I was improving and I was getting discouraged.

So, I decided to re-read Seth Godin’s The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick). I first read the book when it was published in 2007, and I remembered its teachings when faced with my own dip nearly 20 years later.

The long slog to mastery

The ideas in The Dip helped me to think through where I was in my dance journey. In the book, Seth argues that every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out fun… then gets really hard, and not much fun at all.

That’s where I was with my dancing.

Seth writes “The Dip is the difference between the easy ‘beginner’ technique and the more useful ‘expert’ approach.”

The ideas in Seth’s little book were super helpful in getting me back on track. I started taking jazz drum lessons to hone my musicality and rhythm and I began trying more difficult moves on the social dance floor.

Heck I even did a dip with my partner Maria at a recent performance as the photo evidence above shows!

While I pushed through my dance dip, Seth also says there are many times where the best approach is to quit and move on and I've quit many things over the years.

Of course, I will never be remotely close to the skill level of Laura Glaess and AJ Howard in the video below, but I’m not quitting. The dance is just too much fun.

If you’re facing your own dip in business or in life, this is the book for you. It’s a quick read.