passion...schmassion

Day 9940: Speed is your friend

You can learn a lot about life from snowboarding. I am not obsessed. Really.

Yesterday, I watched Lenny take his first run ever down the half-pipe. I was in awe that he was almost making it to the lip on every single pass. Sure, he's been boarding for awhile, and he's pretty comfortable in the park, but on a relative scale of things he was rocking it. He had his share of little spills, caught edges and butt slides, but every time, he picked himself up, dusted himself off and ended the run with an awesome 180 jump off the lip. Amazing. There are some of us who have been in the pipe dozens of times who can't nearly get as high on the wall as he did... and you know why - well... quite simply because we didn't want it bad enough.

I've learned some things over the past few years that I didn't know in school. Stuff I probably should have realized and come to terms with earlier, but for one reason or the other, I never got around to it. Maybe I'm a late bloomer (in more ways than one...), but hey, at least I finally got the message... before it hit me upside the head.

I realized that everything in life is about confidence, aggressiveness and the lack of fear. And that if you want something badly enough, you will do whatever it takes to get it. Take snowboarding. Lenny is confident, attacks the hill aggressively and shows no fear - even though earlier in the evening, he took a wipe in the park and landed hard on a rail and was in some serious pain. But it didn't stop him. Barely even slowed him down - no fear. But school, work and life - I didn't want to pass the UFE the first two times. Couldn't even care less. It was just a thing I had to do before I moved on to the supposed next step of my life (which has yet to begin, btw). Third time around, I wanted it. I wanted it bad enough that I could taste it, so badly that I could just picture myself passing and being over-the-moon-and-around-the-corner with happiness. And so I got it. The first year I tried to drop the weight, I didn't want it badly enough - couldn't do it. But the second time around, I wanted it more than anything else I had wanted before. And so I did it.

It's all about knowing what you want, wanting it badly enough, and then taking the steps to get it. Approach with confidence, aggressiveness and show no fear... it'll happen...

...now, if only I knew what I wanted... :oP