Being Inexperienced Is Not The Same As Being Bad
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
I went skiing last week and realized for the first time that I’m getting better. More importantly that I really enjoy it. It was only a few years ago that I told my friends I was done with the sport. I had become fed up with the whole process and my lack of ability, and decided it just wasn’t for me.
Getting to the mountain. Waiting for rentals. Getting fitted for rentals. Buying a lift ticket. Spending the day in the cold. All of it had worn on me and I didn’t want to do it anymore. I didn’t see the fun that everyone else did, and I thought there were better ways I could spend my winters.
But at the end of October, I moved to Colorado and pressured by my girlfriend, bought an Ikon Pass for the season, and everything is different now.
I live 90 minutes away from world class mountains and each week we’ve made it a point to ski at least once. Five minutes away from my house is a ski shop where I pick my rentals up the night before and return them the morning after. I’ve got a gear bag with my ski pants, jacket, gloves, helmet, goggles, and energy bar that’s always standing ready to be simply thrown into the car.
I’ve figured out the perfect layers to wear that keeps me from getting cold, but also doesn’t let me get too hot. Incentivized by my season pass I’ve already been to the mountains seven times this season, which is close to the number of times I’ve skied in total in the last 10 years.
Getting to the mountain is a breeze. I know where to park. I know what shuttle to take. And I know what lift to take up and what runs to come down to get to the runs I want. And yes, my actual ability to ski has drastically improved.
What I realized is that this whole time it wasn’t that skiing wasn’t for me, or that I was bad at skiing, it was that growing up on Long Island, and living in Los Angeles for the last few years skiing just wasn’t that accessible and it prevented me from being consistent. And not being consistent meant I didn’t have the experience to get better.
The first time I ever skied was in high school, and for many years after that we only skied local hills, I can’t call them mountains. In college I skied in Aspen a handful of times, which changed my idea of what real skiing is, but up until now I still only skied less than once a year.
I just never had the opportunity to put in the required reps to improve. But now that I do, it’s changed everything. Stay consistent with the skills you want to get better at. It’s a guaranteed way to improve.