How to become a successful snowboarder…

First - get a piece of wood about 4-5 feet long and 6 inches wide. Sand it a little. 

Second - get some duct tape and wrap it around the wood and your shoes.

Third - climb a hill by bouncing up and down on said wood, like on a pogo stick.

Fourth - turn and face down the hill.

Fifth - fall down hill in a tumbling motion.

BTW - you should have a helmut, gloves and some snow for this to be more effective.

You can just imagine me on a snowboard flying (I mean, falling) down a hill. Since I have been blessed with the body of a Greek god, I have little problem dealing with large hills and the intense strength and effort it takes to navigate in such snowboard undertakings.

You know, I am not really into snowboarding or any sport in a major way. I like to play sports and like to be successful, but I am truly impressed with athletes that show amazing success in their sport, especially individual sports. You can’t make a mistake and you have to manage all the possible conditions that impact you as you’re performing in that sport.

Take Shaun White for example. I’m not sure that I like all of the snowboard culture and some of the arrogance and attitude in that arena, but I do like to see someone completely dominate their event. It’s not that I just like a certain individual in any sport, but I like the characteristics of what I see in a successful athlete. This guy is on it, in his sport.

It takes immense ability and training to become the elite of any sport and he does this in his sports.

Here are some characteristics that I noticed:

1. Never Satisfied - I don’t mean this in the way of contentment. We should be content with what we have and who we are. I mean that there’s always room for improvement. We can always get better from our failures. We can grow from our mistakes and learn lessons. We can do the same from our successes. We don’t have to settle for what we did yesterday. We can go for new today. Do you sit on the status quo?
2. Never Done - There’s always a new trick or a new idea or something else that we can try to improve. We don’t stop training and practicing and getting better at our craft or in our ministry. We keep on the edge of readiness always, so we can impact more, or sell more, or help more, or do the next trick or better our run from before. Do you just stop learning and growing?
3. Smiling - at the end, no matter how well we do, we smile. We have to be thankful for however well the run went and then smile. Smile a bunch. Getting mad doesn’t help anyway. Smiling always helps. Do you smile? Even with failure?

Lessons Learned: I do not know how to snowboard. We can always do better and be more efficient in what we do.

Thoughts: Have you ever snowboarded? Have you set yourself on a path to do better than the last time?

#failalot