Visualize the Landing in Advance of Departure — Failure Will Be Less Painful and Success More Likely.

Last January I set 6 personal and professional targets as humans are prone to do when our planet is oriented in it’s current position to the sun. Where my previous resolutions tended to keep me focused on things I should not do or should do consistently, they ultimately lead to underwhelming outcomes. Targets on the other hand have kept me focused through the year on successful outcomes.

While skateboarding a few days ago I found myself discovering why targets work better than resolutions. I was trying to articulate to a friend at the park where I had been trying to focus my mind to stick more technical tricks consistently. In short I was explaining that I was focusing on balance, posture and stability in advance of departure. I made a comment that I was impressed by the consistency and succinctness of his tre-flips (a trick where the board spins 360 degrees on both axes before landing). He responded that he has become incredibly confident in tre-flips. So confident that he can pick the spot where his foot is going to land on the board once the rotations have been completed right before he slams it back down on the ground.

I thought about his response for a bit and remembered similar feelings from when I was younger. I started to think that maybe he had it backwards. Maybe he is so good at tre-flips because he is constantly focused on the most granular details of the successful landing. As I started to unravel the thread it started to make a lot more sense. With his focus on the place where his front foot would end up his mind was on the only thing that mattered to successfully roll away unscathed. If he had practiced the trick enough, muscle memory would handle the amount of force needed to flip the board and position his body best before leaving the ground. Even if his body was not positioned perfectly or he over rotated the board, he was still focused on the landing allowing for compensation in advance of asphalt.

The following day the insight translated to personal execution. I realized while trying again to achieve higher, faster and more consistent kick-flips that my focus had been entirely wrong. While focusing on the set-up I was dwelling on the wrong moment. What’s worse I was dwelling on the moment where things could go wrong. I was visualizing the last time I failed or some other unhelpful start to what was more than likely an unsuccessful outcome.

After a 6 month return to my childhood passion it hit me: I needed to focus on rolling away clean. I needed to focus on sticking the landing. I needed to focus on where my feet would be when I had conquered the kick-flip. I started visualizing where the board was going to land and more importantly where my feet would end up. Boom! Immediately I was rolling away clean from tricks the majority of the time. I was skating like I was in high school again.

Upon reflection, 2015 was an incredibly challenging year personally and professionally. 2015 was also a year that came to an end with outcomes very close to the targets which felt personally aggressive when they were set 12 months ago. Outcomes were achieved that others were skeptical of. Outcomes were achieved that I was skeptical of. Those outcomes would have never had happened had I not been focused on them from the outset. While not all of the 2015 targets were met, today I am reassured that I am mid-air still performing those un-landed tricks with a clear focus on rolling smoothly through the landing in 2016.

Today, New Years Day, I went back out to the park with a new sense of confidence. I pushed myself to accomplish three ramp and rail tricks that have traditionally scared me from attempt. (They all involve executing backside or the act of turning your back to the obstacle.) Today I found myself focusing on the positioning of my feet in the assumed landing. While I only stuck one of the tricks once, I was able to leave the park after two hours without injury.

This lead to my second realization of the day: your mind is competent enough to protect you from incident most of the time without you having to focus on the what-ifs. Many times something would go wrong in the air but I would’t have processed how I got out of it unharmed until I was safely grounded on my butt, back or feet. Like start-ups, family, and well-being, the best skateboarders know how to fall the best. Today I feel like I might have discovered their secret: focusing on success makes the falls on the road to getting their less painful. (Yup, it’s cliche but somehow I had forgotten this in skateboarding and I’m sure elsewhere in life.) Today it feels so tangible as I look at what was attempted, failed and accomplished in the past 12 months.

There were two moments on the road to 2015 business and family targets that were painful enough to bring me to tears. One of those events I will remain ever-changed by. The first event was parallel to merely a misplaced board in the air. The focus on the landing (the target) has helped me to roll away smoothly. The second event was tantamount to a serious physical and permanent injury in the park. It was only the focus on the landing that would come with a second attempt that moved me to get up.

Visualize the landing in advance of departure — failure will be less painful and success more likely.