You know that sweet spot? The moment the turn feels just, right? The day you are on, and every turn feels amazing. You even get some hoots and hollers from the chairlift. Why is it then, when something goes wrong, we have a bad day or someone tells us it’s not perfect, we believe we were never that good? This even happens to elite athletes who have won gold medals and Super Bowl rings. They have one bad day and everything they accomplished goes out the window.
I just taught one of the worst lessons of my life and I have been teaching for 35 years. When I walked into the office, I said “that was discouraging!” There was nothing I could do to get this girl to turn. I tried every trick in the book, and my book is thick, and while I do believe there are some people who should never ski, and she may have been one of them, it was still discouraging and made me wonder if I am a bad instructor. Am I though?
Did you know that when you let someone (even yourself) get in your head, making you feel discouraged, you are allowing them to take away your courage. That is what it means to be discouraged, the removal of courage. Discouragement equals failure when it moves in, and it is imperative that you get rid of it.
First you need to ask yourself, who is your adversary? And then tell them to shut up. If you don’t, delusion sets in, and we begin to doubt ourselves. While yes, many people can be delusional, causing them to have a giant ego, you can also be delusional over emphasizing your weaknesses. It can make you think you are further away from something than you are. The reality is, we usually get discouraged the most when we are working towards something great. We all know that when doing the work, we may just be one step or one small change away from success, yet this is often when we give up.
Many of you are about to, or just did take an assessment. When training, and in the process, it is difficult to not get discouraged. It is easy to get in your head or let someone else get in your head. But I know the very reason you are in the process is because you had that day described above. The days when you crushed it out there. So as the season winds down and whether like me you have a bad lesson, or a bad run, or a bad assessment, choose the confidence to know that you are good and that one day doesn’t take away the many great ones!
Stay the course and have a safe and wonderful end to your season.