Lift served skiing in the northern hemisphere is almost done. Mammoth is open until July as usual... most mountains in the west have snow still, hiking for the goods has been fun, though for me at least, not nearly as much time doing so as I'd like.
NZ national demo team member, Dave Taylor's back in New Zealand, ready for another year of 250 days on snow +/-... not a bad way to live; fly fishing in the moment instead of making turns. There's lessons there too...
Just finished "The Speed of Trust" by Stephen M.R. Covey... let's see... Covey seems to have connected all the dots here... leadership, skiing, fishing, coaching, learning and applying learning... let's see how in brief!
At the outset of the book, Covey shares a story about fly fishing with a guide:
The guide asks, "Look at the water, tell me what you see."
"Basically, I told him I saw a beautiful river with the sun reflecting off the surface of the water."
"Do you see any fish?" the guide asked.
""I replied I did not." Then the guide handed me a pair of polarized glasses."
"Put these on." he said
"Suddenly everything looked dramatically different.... I discovered I could see through the water. And I could see fish - a lot of fish. Suddenly I could sense enormous possibility that I hadn't seen before. In reality those fish were there all along, but until I put on the glasses, they were hidden from my view."
Skiing's just like this. We tend to take for granted, what we can or can't do. We look, and often times do NOT see what's possible. Sometimes this is due to mechanic's; sometimes its due to tactics; largely what we see is from habit.
Skiing with a coach is amazing, Dave Taylor creates the ability to "see" the fish. No doubt he's using polarized lenses as he's fishing in NZ, in anticipation of the first major snow fall of the southern hemisphere season... meanwhile he "sees" possibilities when he "looks" at water. Dave sees possibilities when he's looking at terrain, "that's skiable!"
Leadership is the same. Covey talks of this; Dave talks about this within the realm of ski industry leadership.
What's true? Habit doesn't make something true. Habit makes the outcome of habit true...
I may be stretching a bit here, but what I love about fly fishing more than any other style of fishing is that you have to work a line to the fish, its my responsibility to maneuver my gear to the fish in a way that is quiet, smooth and effective. If I'm to be effective with a fly rod, practicing right things right is what's critical...
Skiing, I'd better be centered, in balance. This does not mean be static, in fact the opposite is true, I'd better be actively centered to encourage and maintain balance.
I can talk about effective fly fishing all day, talk about skiing all day, talk about leadership all day... to be effective in any AND all three of these activities, I'd better look differently to see differently; I'd better pay attention to my point of focus and I better apply what I learn, not just "learn." My invitation here is an invitation to myself:
1. Pay attention to my habits
2. How is my habit serving me? How is it not serving me?
3. What have I learned about seeing, hence performing differently?
4. Do to the best of my ability. Be conscious. With enough practice, my new habits become fluid too, unconscious competence... Mastery...
5. Stay conscious...
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