What Learning how to Snowboard taught me!

I had the most amazing time on the weekend and as always I love to use life and the experiences I have, as metaphors for deeper learnings and learning how to snowboard, certainly was no different.

My biggest takeaway?

Be prepared to fail many, many, many times when you are learning something new.

It’s awkward as, and it’s totally ok to face plant, to get it wrong, to fall over, to not know how.

There’s huge vulnerability in being a beginner and being ok with looking stupid and being able to laugh massively at myself, that definitely made the process more enjoyable!

In every failure, there was a lesson, a learning, a nuance of what not to do, and therefore what I could do differently and how I could improve.

So here we go…..

1. Build the foundations first, understand the foundational principles of what you are learning first. Without this, it makes everything else much more difficult.
2. Be prepared to fail, many, many, many times, in truth, there is no failure, only learning, unless we give up.
3. Get a brilliant mentor or coach, someone that is an expert at what you want to achieve or overcome, that knows the pitfalls, that can teach you not only the foundations, but the nuances that make all the difference. Learning is so much faster when you have someone teaching you that knows what they are doing. (I did a 2 hour beginners lesson.)
4. Learning takes courage and a tonne of resilience and humility. I can’t tell you how many times I slid down the mountain on my butt or face planted, it’s the willingness to keep trying that eventually leads to improvement.
5. Have fun in the process and do your best to laugh at yourself along the way, you are not the only one learning, or that has ever learnt something new, don’t take yourself too seriously….
6. Having a partner that truly supports you and encourages you and sticks with you, even when you are slow, or learning or fumbling, truly is one of life’s biggest blessings and I’m so grateful to my love Tim Phillips.
7. Conditions will change, be ready for challenges. After the first day I’d gained a lot of confidence being in slow conditions with lots of powder. On the second day on the first run early morning, it was super icy and I almost gave up, terrified and teary….. I knew my mindset was not supporting me. I took my time to prepare again mentally and had a much better run down the rest of the mountain.

I believe that having a powerful mindset is everything and being in a relaxed calm state.

Mentally visualising the outcome I desired, definitely helped me along the way, when I remembered to do it.

And it can also be so challenging to do, with so much adrenaline running through my body at the time, being able to focus in a powerful way to breakthrough and face my biggest fears and outer edges of my comfort zone.

The weekend truly pushed me outside of that, and the breakthrough feels sweet as. I’m pretty proud of myself.

What’s something that you once found so difficult and maybe even really scary, and with persistence and determination, you broke through and you are so proud of yourself for doing so?

I’d love to hear.

With Love and Blessings,

Sal x

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