Snowboard Through Your Fears, Pain, and Setbacks To Reach Your Goals

There I was, sitting on a ski lift going up a 12,000 foot mountain. In ten minutes, I’d be at the top and be snowboarding to the bottom.

This is AWESOME, I thought to myself as I enjoyed the ride and looked at the 14,000 foot mountain peaks all around me. I was stoked, happy to be in the mountains, and couldn’t wait to start snowboarding.

Arriving at the top, I strapped my boots to my bindings and turned on my music. I was beyond stoked, and couldn’t wait to go down the hill.

Then all of a sudden, as I was no more than 15 seconds down the mountain, it hit me: wow, this is fast. REALLY fast.

My next thought was, what happens if I wipe out? Will it hurt? Will it be fun? Will I laugh?

Then, all of a sudden, it happened. I crashed. I wiped out. Completely ate it. (And yes, I did laugh.)

The funny thing is, it wasn’t that bad. Yes, it hurt a little bit the first few times I fell down, but it didn’t end my snowboarding career. I got better and better each time I went down the hill, learned from my wipe outs, and kept going. And the better I got at snowboarding, the more fun it became.

The wipe outs actually helped me become a better snowboarder. Had I given up after my first wipe out and called it a day, I would have never made progress, had so much fun, or reached my goal (to get to the bottom of the mountain.)

The temptation, when we encounter setbacks, pain, fear, or anything else standing in the way of our intended destination/goal, is to give up and not go for it. But the truth is, the setbacks, pain, fear, and obstacles standing in our way actually stand to help us and make us stronger if we persevere through them and choose to get better because of them.

Don’t give up. Plow through whatever fear, pain, setback, or obstacle stands in your way. Have a clear goal in mind, persevere and press forward, and snowboard through your fears, pain, and obstacles to reach your destination.

“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.”
– Earl Nightingale