99. It’s like life

A wise woman once shared with me that the wisest people can pull life lessons from anything, even the simplest things

Snowboarding – like everything else – is like life

It’s exciting

snowboarding is filled with some adrenaline and extreme presentness, we may not walk this way in life but it is a goal worth striving for. If we could be absurdly present backed with a tad of urgency, imagine what we could accomplish in our days? 

High’s and lows

with snowboarding, one minute we’re gliding on top of some fresh powder on top of the world, the next minute we catch a nasty edge and face plant into some ice. It’s all about getting back up and keeping on.

Unexpected slams 

this relates to the above point. The slams don’t have to be our fault either. Someone could crash into us, derail us, but it’s our responsibility to take control of ourselves and how we respond. Do we get back up or pout and stomp around? Or do we get back up and get in our rhythm? It’s all about our response to the situation. 

Some things are a pain 

walking up a mountain, getting all geared up, the parking lot – these all may be a pain, but they’re necessary to get done if we want to experience the benefits of snowboarding. Not everything in life is going to be “fun and exciting”. Some things are going to be a pain and that’s okay.

Things take time

we’re not magically going to be able to do a triple backflip cork or arriving at the top of the mountain. At first we’re going to fall – a lot, like a newborn giraffe trying to walk. That goes with anything though. Did Michael Jordan become Jordan out the womb? No, he became Michal Jordan because he worked at his craft and slowly got better everyday. Do we have expectations with life on how we “should” be doing? Or do we understand that things take time and we do our best with what we have?

Going fast doesn’t mean we’re good

people shoot straight down the mountain and that’s great and fun. That doesn’t make them necessarily good though, just like how in life, busy people aren’t the most productive, the highest paid, or the most happiest

It can be as expensive as we want it to be

gear setups can run as low as 300$ to near $10,000 if we want them too. People can live on $1,000 a month or $100,000 a month. It’s up to us and there’s no right or wrong, just different.

Sometimes we’ll look beat up

snow in the hair, eyebrows, in our pants, all twisted up and disheveled looking, things are not going to be perfect. We can try as hard as we can though.

And when we’re in the trees snowboarding

we spend more time thinking about where we want to go and less time thinking about the things we could crash into. It’s like a black and white picture.

If we look at the white ink we see one image and the black ink, another. Do we look at life by working towards where we want to go? Or do we constantly worry this could or should happen? 

What else could be added to this list? Let me know! 

And always remember, wise people can learn lessons from anything, even the simplest thing.