By Andrew Weitzen, DanceCalendar.info, Bronze Inc. (c) 2010.

Andrew Weitzen is the author of Partnership Dancing™, How to Communicate Every Step in Every Social Dance Unambiguously.

Sometimes my dad would tell me to do things. There might be some family related event or some other thing and he might say, "You don't have to go to this," or he might say, "You should do this."

Whatever it was, if he said I should do it, I would do it. I fought with my dad a lot, but never over things like this.

You cannot trust your own decision making. We are all biased and influenced by our emotions that are often not in our best interest. We tend to make decisions based on laziness, fear and avoiding uncomfortableness.

That is one of the reasons we need trainers and teachers, to challenge us and force us to do things we would not do otherwise. Get us out of our comfort zone.

A friend of mine, Rick called me up late at night to go on a sailboat from Miami to the Bahamas. They needed a fourth guy to share the expenses. I agreed, but as soon as Rick hung up the phone, I changed my mind.

I called Rick back and told him, "I'm not going. I will be throwing up for four days." Rick talked me back into going, but again, as soon as he hung up, I changed my mind again.

I am embarrassed to say, this happened at least five more times that same night and has to be the most absurd phone calls I have ever made. I did go on that trip. I did not throw up and it was one of the most memorable four days I have spent.

A couple years later, when Rick told me I should go on a camping canoe trip down the Colorado river, I went, even though I was sure I was not going to sleep for a week.

On Labor Day weekend I was responsible for the evenings' main entertainment at Mosaic Outdoor Club's International Event.

We were at a kids camp in the mountains north of Montreal. The first night I led a folk dance program for a couple of hours.

The camp fire and night hike got rained out, so I had to improvise some other dancing to keep people entertained. Most people participated, but a few sat and watched.

Mosaic wanted to get their money's worth out of me and had me organize a talent show the second night. I have no talent, but fortunately some of the other people did.

There were a number of singers (mostly funny songs) and various improv numbers. They were really good and I was impressed. I had thought the talent show was a bad idea, but did not say anything because I figured I was probably wrong.

The last night, I was leading another dance program. Again there were some people sitting out, so I said, "I know some of you are uncomfortable about getting up and dancing."

"You have to trust me. I have done this hundreds and hundreds of times. I picked these dances for you, for people who do not dance regularly. I promise, you are going to like it."

That got them up dancing, at least a little anyway.

Sometimes you have to trust other people. You have to figure, when you have a difference of opinion, at least half the time you are wrong, and probably a lot more than that if the other person knows something you do not know.