I called a friend of mine on a Tuesday last month to invite him to lunch on the following Thursday. He said that he couldn’t do anything on Thursday because he was going skiing with his college age son. He explained that his son had never been skiing before, and he would be taking lessons. He added, “If you want to be Mr. Spontaneous, you’re welcome to come skiing with us.”
It just so happened that I had never skied before, and I had been hoping for an opportunity to go this year. I had already given up on the idea of skiing this season — after all, it was already late March.
This invitation is something that I would not have acted upon in the past. Looking back, I have been too serious, too “all business” to take the time out to do something like this. Especially on such short notice! Lately, I have been realizing that I need to make time to truly live. It is these experiences of life that matter the most, the memories that are created, and the opportunities we have to bond with other people. I jumped on it.
On Thursday, we drove a couple hours up to Pat’s Peak in Henniker, New Hampshire. We got up there at about 10AM, took lessons for a little over an hour, and skied all day until 5pm. I had a wonderful day, and I also had a startling revelation.
At first, I was so scared of falling and wiping out. I didn’t want to go very fast or try to turn either. I mean, what if I fell?! That would be terrible and I didn’t want to get hurt. Just give me a flat surface and I could push myself along with my poles (barely). After getting used to it, we went on some easy slopes during our lesson. The first time I fell, I thought I was going too fast and I didn’t know how to stop, so I fell down in order to stop myself! My skis flew off in either direction! How terrible you say! I found that it was actually kind of fun and it didn’t hurt or anything!
After I realized that falling didn’t hurt, I was no longer afraid of it anymore. I started to go faster. I started to actually try turning and zig-zagging down the mountain instead of focusing on trying not to fall. Every time I fell, I found where my limits were and I got better. It reminded me of a quote from (”DO IT! Lets get off our but’s” by Peter McWilliams) “[the fastest way to success is to make as many mistakes as possible, as quickly as you can]“(paraphrased from memory). After realizing this, I fell again. A *LOT*. I tried to keep track of how many times but I can’t count that high. I was going on tougher trails, just to see if I could stay upright.
The way to success in skiing is to fall as many times as possible as quickly as possible, testing your limits so that you know where they are. This is how humans learn. So many people I talk to are afraid of screwing up, afraid of making mistakes. This isn’t just skiing though. This applies to anything and everything.
Being afraid of making mistakes is essentially the same as being afraid of learning. Making mistakes can be the best way to learn something. If you are afraid of getting out of your comfort zone, afraid of screwing up, you will not grow. Fear drives people to be content with mediocrity, the status quo, and living a boring life. In the words of Tim Ferriss, “Remember — boredom is the enemy, not some abstract failure.”
Get out there and learn by doing. Test your limits. Make mistakes. Challenge your thinking on this. Have you ever seen the popular t-shirt which states “He who dies with the most toys wins”? I have my own version.
“He who makes the most mistakes wins.” - Zo DiGiovanni
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Tags: persistence, Positive Attitude