On Skiing and Your Success
It’s the heart of ski season here, and while cross country skiing the other day I was thinking a lot about you and your hopes and dreams for 2017. As I enjoyed my quiet, sunny morning of exercise and fresh air, I thought about the ski tips I’ve learned in the past and what they have to do with you.
We’re more than half way through January, so you may have already hit an obstacle when it comes to achieving your New Year’s resolutions or goals. Are you feeling a bit stuck as you learn the new skills required to achieve your plans?
Enjoy these ski tips as a metaphor for getting back on track with your goals. Even if you have no interest in skiing or you live in the south, there’s a takeaway here for you.
7 Skiing Success Strategies
- On Improving Technique – Practising new techniques feels so wrong and unnatural at first, but eventually the flow will surpass your expectation. Don’t focus on what you’re doing wrong, instead focus on the proper new technique.
- On Corners – Lean into the curve in the direction you’re going so that you don’t fall off balance. Keep your head up and look in the direction you want to go.
- On Uphills – Deliberately place your foot, shift your weight there, place your next foot in front of the other and repeat. Use the momentum of each step until you get to the top and once you get there keep going. If you stop, you’ll lose your momentum (or fall backwards) and its harder to get going again.
- On Downhills – Sure, there are tips to learn but eventually you just have to relax an go for it. The more you resist, tense up and worry, the more likely you are to crash! The hardest part is training your brain to know everything is going to be alright. The scariest part is at the top looking down, but once you’ve done it you’re like “oh, I could have done that all along.”
- On Leaving the Track – When it’s time to change course, step out a little sooner than you feel comfortable, and do it quickly with both feet.
- On Practice – Learn a few tips, then focus on those a little at a time each day until they come naturally. Commend yourself for trying something new. Enjoy the process.
- On Celebrating – Sure the experience itself is a reward, but there’s nothing like Finnish pancakes and a sauna to celebrate a job well done!
And I’m sure you can guess where I learned these great tips. A coach, of course! I’m mostly a self-taught skier, but there are just some things you can’t learn from a book or a YouTube video. There’s nothing like the right coach to help you develop more quickly and smoothly than you could on your own.
I love how my ski coach: saw things about what I was doing that I couldn’t see myself and helped me improve them; adapted her lessons to meet me where I was; patiently repeated lessons until I “got it”; helped me through the parts that intimidated me; encouraged me and wanted to me to succeed; was a pleasure to spend time with and made the experience fun!
So as you work on your dreams and desires, may these Skiing Success Strategies help you along your way. But if you’re feeling stuck and would love a coach to help you more quickly and smoothly reach your goals, I’d love to talk. Book a Clarity Call to talk with me about how I can help you succeed in 2017.
Yours Outdoors,
Nicole