When I was 16 years old, I was night skiing at Big Boulder in Pennsylvania with my good friend Tim. Back then, ski lifts were very slow, and frigid. While sitting on ice cold metal during a 10 minute lift ride, Tim and I would talk and think a lot to keep our minds off how cold we were.
Towards the end of one lift ride, I told him that when I “grew up” I was going to work in finance. The numbers fascinated me, and I really wanted to know what it meant to buy and own stocks.
Lessons Learned
Recently, I was very fortunate to be skiing in Aspen, and I took a ski lesson for the simple fact that I’m a life long learner. Through this lesson with Dave, a wonderful instructor, I learned the power of breathing to stay loose. I’ve been skiing for many decades, but during this trip I had a revelation.
In the easy terrain I was relaxed and breathed well, but Dave noticed that in the tough terrain – double black diamonds – I would try to muscle through everything with a tense body. We worked on breathing exercises, specifically, exhaling loudly at the end of each turn in order to keep my body loose! I went down the mountain like a champion!
It was mind blowing! I skied runs with pretty evergreens everywhere, and bumps the size of Volkswagens with ease. What an eye opening experience!
Additionally, we worked on visualization. In the past, when going down a double black diamond, I would tell myself, I hope I don’t fall. Now, I see the way I’m going to ski down the run a few seconds before it actually happens.
For all these years, I was doing it the wrong way! I was really floored.
I Don’t Ski
You’re probably thinking, “Why are you telling me this?” I don’t ski and never plan on doing it in my entire life.
It’s all about the approach. Having an expert help and guide you in life is important, even for a topic that you may think, as I did, that you know everything about it.
This could apply to sports, fitness, or anything else.
When I saw Tim at our high school reunion, I reminded him of our growing up story on the ski lift many years before. He was very excited that I made good on my promise, and he was even happier that I improved my skiing over the years.
Want to chat about skiing better?