This weekend I re-learned a valuable lesson in the importance in patience. I had the yearly trip up to Big White with my family which fit 7 adults, 3 kids, a newborn, and 3 dogs into 1 house. Chaos personified if I have ever seen it…but I’d have it no other way. With so much going on, it can be hard to take time to focus on yourself…so I made a promise that I would make sure that I would find time to snowboard, and enjoy every minute of it. The thing is, as much as I love snowboarding, I am a snob. I would rather not go at all, then go on a day without powder. Many epic days in the snow have spoiled me….and here in lies the rub. I am staying up at Big White for 4 days, and the weather is sub-par.
The first day we get there (Friday) it is a beautiful blue sky and is nice and warm. There is a lot of activity on the hill, but we are getting settled into our lodging. People were posting online about how beautiful the conditions were, and how there have only been a handful of clear days this year. Looking forward into the weather forecast, the following day was supposed to be colder and not bring any new snow …Did I miss the timing of my day to go snowboarding?
True to the weather guys prediction…As I wake up Saturday morning- no new snow, and cold as heck (read: all that nice snow from Friday is now solid ice). So I decided to spend the day relaxing while the kids were in lessons. Turns out the weather guy was only correct until 11am. Then it once again got beautiful out, but by then I had mentally moved on to spending time with family and prepping for dinner etc. Super important, but definitely not snowboarding….and the weather prediction for the following day was to be cold, minimal snow and windy. Very windy.
Sure enough, this was the worst day of the lot so far. This was definitely a no go for any form of fun snowboarding, unless you are looking to use the wind to sail to the west coast. Seriously…it was that bad….and so it all came down to going snowboarding on the following day…or not at all.
As I was going to bed that final night, I looked back at all the fun things we had done as a family, and will cherish many of the memories forever. It was fantastic. Many of these memories that I was involved in clearly happened because of the fact I was present in what was happening and not thinking about my missed time snowboarding. I had resigned to the fact that I was not going to ride that day, and had put all my focus back into what mattered at that moment. The conditions were garbage anyways, so why waste mental space and time on something that really wouldn’t have been worth it. I think the key thing here was not forcing the issue. When you always tend to focus on others (job, kids, family) sometimes you can feel lost in the shuffle, and then try to force it when you are trying to spend time on yourself. Perhaps not listening to the proverbial weatherman.
In returning to sports, I definitely see patients with a lack of patience. Maybe it’s not my place to say, but I see people forcing the issue to get back to sports for one reason or another. I’m sure those reasons are even valid, but what I’m suggesting is the time just may not be right. I see them do all the right steps in terms of doing rehab, working on other parts of themselves, but there is that innate drive to get back to “the old them”. I’m not sure if it’s the ego talking, or just a goal to overcome adversity and prove to themselves that they are healed. Forcing the issue in either of these situations can lend itself to failure…which has more of a negative impact on mental health, then perhaps waiting for an extra day, week, or month. To be clear, waiting does not mean sitting around doing nothing…in fact it is the exact opposite. It should be doing everything else to clear obstacles and excuses so that when the right time does arrive, there is nothing holding you back, and you can then be present in the moment when you are attempting to achieve your focused goal. Set yourself up for success!
So what happened with me being OK with the possibility of not snowboarding, and putting off going out in far less than ideal conditions? I woke up looking out the window throughout the night to heavy snowfall, and in the morning was treated to 30cm of fluffy snowfall. Boom.
It was an amazing day of riding fresh tracks. I met an 86 year old with a perma-grin beating people half his age down the hill. Everywhere I went I heard people laughing and high-fiving over the “best run ever”.
For those of you that had patience this weekend…High Five.
When I was done, I walked back to the cabin where we were staying and realized the vast amount of snow that had to be cleared for us to be able to get our vehicle out. I look around and see a small scoop shovel…I think to myself “Self, you got to have fun, and this is a little bit of work to pay for the fun you had…no biggy”. I set to work clearing an ENORMOUS amount of snow (think knee high x 30 SUVs)…and JUST as I finished shoveling for well over an hour, a massive CAT with chains and snowplow attachment showed up to finish the job.
Perhaps, I should have been more patient…