Skiing is most fun sliding fast from the top of a hill without falling. I am no expert skier but I am very keen. When at the top of a hill my head often screams ‘too high and too steep’.
Most skiers realise that there is no hill that is too high or too steep. Getting down in one piece depends on how the hill is traversed; some hills are harder to traverse than others.
No hill is too high or too steep when you know how to traverse it. Nothing in life is impossible if you chunk it down.
In skiing – like goal setting you have to concentrate on where you want to go and your body will follow.
If you freak out and look at your feet – you go tumbling end over end and the result is an undignified mess.
Far better to throw yourself off down the slopes with gusto – with enough momentum you go flying over the bumps instead of crashing into them.
Yeeeeee Haaaaaaaa!!!
@Elaine: Needs quite a bit of thought, calculation and planning as well.
And sometimes you learn more by just taking action anyway LOL – says the “eternal beginner” (who can’t ski for toffee – but does do spectacular Snow Angels)
I like this! And agree with Elaine. Sometimes you just have to do it, even if it scares the bejeezus out of you.
@Femmefrugality: Agree; one has to do it but do we act despite the fear (Feel the fear and do it anyway. kind of thing) or we can learn to transform our fear by changing its conditions?
So true! It’s like with everything: chunck it down, make baby steps and you will get there. 🙂
@Ella: Sounds simple but we very often forget that large things usually are composed of little sub units. How many people don’t save because they think they should be able to put large amounts aside and don’t realise that even $30 every month adds up? How many people don’t start doing something because ‘it will take a long time’? Well, many…
I went skiing years ago and snow plowed the whole way back to civilization.
@Jai: One has to start somewhere 🙂 .
For several years, my family took a skiing trip. Everyone loved it. Some more than others, but we all have some fond memories of those family excursions. There is nothing quite so exhilerating as zooming along on good powder. Well, almost nothing.
@Dr. Dean: Agree! Most relaxing!
The only things in life that are scary are the things that we don’t know about.
@Funancials: I am not that brave! I find many things I know about very scary; it is just a different kind of fear. The former is fear with certainty and the latter fear with the ‘new’ kind of risk.
I disagree with the basic premise.
There are some mountains that you can’t ski down. What comes to mind is a vertical cliff face. There is no slope (inclined plane) to move down, so it’s absolutely impossible to ski.
Other options for getting down:
1. Rock climbing, such as on Mount Everest. or
2. Falling.
So, you can go very very slowly and in a controlled fashion, or very very quickly with no control (and an unhappy result).
@Maggie: Hey, Maggie, and thanks for stopping by. You are right of course that there are slopes you can’t ski on. But…the point I was making is that even a vertical drop can be dealt with – rock climbing is fine. As you said, slow and controlled is what does it; and of course chuncking it. There are hard climbs but there are very, very few truly impossible ones.
What a great reminder! This reminds me of the value of quality preparation. Some people use preparation as an excuse for inactivity while others use it to effectively prepare to transverse steep slopes!
@Roshawn: Yep. Look, prepare, traverse!
Unless you’re like me and terrified of heights 🙂 I’ve skiied since I was two, and still can’t handle the steep slopes.
@Daisy: same here; the vertigo, I mean not skiing since the age of two. But it depends on the hill and whether I allow myself to look straight down.