Misty Copeland on Finding Your Voice

Resilience. Strength. Grace.

1. Evaluate the source of comments and opinions, and then decide how much weight they deserve.Negative comments might have derailed Misty's love of ballet, but instead, she chose carefully to whom she would listen and discovered the wisdom of listening to herself.
2. Mentors play a significant role. Mentorshelped guide Misty through challenges and provided the support network needed for success. Her first dance teacher, Cindy Bradley, was instrumental in setting Misty on the course that would shape her future.
3. Resilience is the attitude you use to overcome challenges.It's not enough to keep trying, you have to see setbacks and failures for what they are: opportunities to learn and grow. It can be applied to how you rebound from a bad practice - you choose to focus on what went wrong, or you decide to focus on how you can do better.
4. Love who you are because that is the source of your strength.Misty loves her muscular body, and it's what won over critics. What most saw, in the early days, as a negative, she turned into an asset.
5. Keep it simple, and it will inform how you control your body (and mind.)When asked how she keeps her upper body so still, Misty shared her philosophy to keep it simple and to not add anything unnecessary to a move. This dance tip can be applied to any sport and really, to any part of our lives.

With these reflections, two more words come to mind when describing Misty Copeland.

 

Intelligence. Wisdom.