The Effect of Skateboarding in my work life
I’ve gotten back to skateboarding in the past year, and it has had some effect in my work processes. I’ll just share a bit of it.
Learning/relearning
It takes a lot of effort to learn something all over again. Going to a park where 12–15 year olds dominate, and falling (bailing) often is something humbling. It reminds me that there is no age to stop learning and there is no one too young to learn something from. Advice coming from a 9 year old:
Especially for the big ramps, sometimes you just have to commit — Vincent
(The ramp is two times his height)
Falling down
Everyone, really everyone, falls. It’s part of the effect of it, explained really well by Rodney Mullen in his TED talk.
The fear as you stand on top of a ramp before dropping in (standing with the tip of your board at the ramp, and leaning to roll into it) ; the apprehension of an Ollie into stair or platform (jumping with the board beneath your feet onto a raised area) ; the panic that sets in as your wheels wiggle as you bomb a hill (rolling down a steep hill); all these fade away when you fall.
You realize: you’re still alive
You realize: you can do it again
You realize: you have to do it again
Which brings me to my next and last point:
You have to do it again
You simply must. You have to. Make it succeed, make it work somehow. Someone else in the world has struggled just as much as you have, and they’re alive, and they’ve done it. You can too.
Getting it from okay to good to great
No one ever stops after they’ve learnt a trick. They learn it, and maybe scrape by trying to land it. But after you land it once, you have to do it again. Do it better this time. Landed it great? That’s awesome, can you land it great a second time?
Keep on at it, because you can always, always do it better.
Work life similarities
- I should never ever assume I know all the answers. I should always be willing to learn from everyone
- If I fail, it’s okay. I have just proved that the worst can happen and has happened
- I need to pick myself up and do it again, trying again and again.
- If I’ve done something great once, I should try to do it great again.
