Winter Skiing

“The greatest joys in life are happy memories, and the great business of life is to create as many of them as possible.�?

My family and I took three days and went to Park City Utah to ski over the President’s Day weekend.

David and Sarah drove up from Las Vegas, while Christina, Damon and little Julie (15 months) flew in from Los Angeles. Barbara, myself and Catherine (16 years old) flew up from San Diego. After a little coordination, we all got together and drove up to the two condominium units we had rented at the base of the ski slopes in Park City.

We have not skied for two years so we had to remember and relearn the critical skills of turning and stopping as we went down the slopes.

The skiing is, in a way, a metaphor for life. One of the first things I learnt, to my surprise, was that the faster you skied, the more control you had.

My first ski instructor kept telling me to “Let the Skis do the work.”

She continued to repeat, “Lean over the front of the skis. You will go faster, but you will have more control in turning and stopping than if you lean back.”

In life it is very much the same. Sometimes the way you gain the most control is by taking bold action and aggressively pursuing your goals, even though you have no guarantee of success, and there is a high possibility that you will fail, at least in the short term.

The only way you learn to ski is by falling down multiple times until you finally master the balancing act of staying on your skis as they move forward. But if you are too afraid to fall at all, you can never learn to ski quickly and smoothly down the slopes.

Our children have all learned to ski at an early age. The advantage they had was that they were completely fearless. Because they were so close to the ground, falling for them meant sitting down into the snow, with no pain or discomfort.

As adults, we tend to play it safe. We are more cautious. We have a greater distance to fall, and it hurts more when we hit the ground.

The biggest single reason for failure in adult life is the fear of failure. It is not the failure itself that causes the problem; it is the thinking about the potential failure that holds people back.

The way you get over the fear of failure, whether in skiing or in life, is to confront your fears, and do the thing you fear. Throw your body over the front of your skis and focus on your goal or destination rather than thinking about falling or swerving off track.

There is another thing that I relearned on this ski trip with my family. The French essayist, Michel de Montaigne once wrote, “The greatest joys in life are happy memories, and the great business of life is to create as many of them as possible.”

The best moments of my life are the times that I spend with my family at dinners, on vacations, traveling or just hanging out.

In the non-stop world of business today, it is easy to lose sight of those things that are really important.

In your own life, your greatest joys will come from spending time with people that you care about. Your job is to create as many of those memorable moments as possible. Everything else will pass. The time will pass, and the money will be gone, but the memories will remain.

Talk to you again soon.

Brian Tracy

About Brian Tracy — Brian is recognized as the top sales training and personal success authority in the world today. He has authored more than 60 books and has produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs on sales, management, business success and personal development, including worldwide bestseller The Psychology of Achievement. Brian's goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Linkedin and Youtube.

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