In January, I enrolled in a dance studio and started having hip hop, locking and house classes.

The hardest part? Being a complete beginner. Often I just looked like Naomi Watts’ character at a dance scene in While We’re Young.

The challenging part about learning a completely new skill in your adult life is realizing how scary and uncomfortable it is to be in a position where you just don’t know anything. It is "easy" to learn things that are complementary to what I already know – for me, learning a new programming language or framework – but it is hard to learn something completely disparate – drawing, playing music, etc.

Part of the frustration came from the fact that in the beginning I didn’t know how to practice dance in order to get better at it. Knowing there is a path you can take to reach excellence, creates hope.

Whenever I have a bad day at dance practice I think of DHH, a programmer with a remarkable career which also happens to be an award winning sports cars driver in his spare time. The impressive part is that he started racing cars in his early 30s.

If he did it, I should also be able to do it if I practice well and enough, I tell myself.

Excelsior.