For my birthday my boyfriend Joe Connector and I went to Whistler for the weekend on a media trip. I had never been to Whistler before and it has been a dream of mine to go snowboarding. Though Joe is a skier he was willing to try snowboarding for the first time with me. I wanted to take a second and reflect on all the lessons I learned on the slopes. After the trip I came away so inspired.

Here are the lessons I learned… 

1. I am out of shape! lol… I knew it would be a tough physically but I was super proud of myself that my but didn’t hurt as much as my arms did. I ended up having to lift my self up with my arms a lot. I have been exercising a lot at home doing a lot of squats seem to be my favorite exercise and it must have helped a little. Though a few times I felt my legs give out when I had a great momentum. More core and cardio work outs for me
2. Mindset is everything! Every time I started going faster my mind would flip out and say ” your going to fast, you will fall” guess what happens? I fell. I either would fly face forward or on my butt sliding down the hill. It is so important to try your mind to stay out of the gutter, or else you will go flying in it.
3. The best way to learn anything is to go out and do it.  We didn’t want to pay anyone to teach us how to snowboard so we went out on our own. Sometimes the best teaching is when you are not afraid to fall and get back up again. It took me a the first few hours to get it but by the time we got towards the bottom I started to feel like I was getting it.
4. Duplicate what works. I had no clue how to get on the ski lift. We watched a few people and they had one boot on their boards and the other off so they could slide up to the chair lift line and had one foot our propped on the foot bar. Watching others get on and off and trying to copy what others do works.
5. Interview successful people. Joe gets his nick name “The Connector” because he is truly a connector. He has this talent or some kind of easy going vibe that makes it easy for him to talk to others and interview them maybe because of his news background with owning a newspaper, bellevuebusinessjournal.com. So, as we are checking in and getting our gear, and as we shared a chair lift up the mountain he constantly would ask others “what advice would you give beginners?”. I love it because as you know, the main reason I started this blog was to interview people who have generated wealth and learn from their experiences to get to a level they have gotten to. Same with snowboarding. How can I learn to be an expert on the slopes interview the experts. Or if you have the money hire someone to teach you or ask a friend who would be willing to teach you. I am a big advocate for having mentors support in all aspects for your life.
6. Positive Partners….I am so lucky I have a positive boyfriend who keeps cheering me on. I would get a good rhythm going and start passing Joe and he would say “keep going, your doing great! Don’t stop!”. He never said anything negative to me. He would keep making sure I was ok. He waited patiently when I couldn’t get up. As we got closer to the end he would say only 50 feet more, you can do it!! I appreciated that so much!! It is so important to keep positive people around you. It helps to have a cheer section that you can count on.
7. The faster you get up the easier it got. Strangely this was true and can be related to life as well. The faster I was able to get back up from a fall the easier it was to get back up. When I would fall and stay stuck it would take more effort and struggle to get back up.
8. Kids are so focused! We can learn a lot from our kids. On this trip we didn’t bring our kids but I saw so many kids ski-ing like pros. I saw this one girl so focused and just flowing down as her mom and siblings were trying to keep up, yelling at her to stop and wait. It was so cute I saw this one dad holding a 3 year old sleeping in his arms skiing down the mountain. Nothing to learn here but it was just really cute that guy must have been a very skilled pro to carry a kid and ski back down. I can’t wait to get our kids up on the slopes.
9. Canadians are nice! I love meeting people and everywhere we went people were really nice. I know Whistler is a resort town but everyone who worked in the restaurants to the hotel and ski lodge were very nice. It seemed like people came from all over Canada and other places to enjoy the skiing and they all came for the love of the sport.
10. It’s an expensive sport. Snowboarding, Skiing are expensive sports. By the time you rent all the equipment, travel expenses, hotel and food it can be costly. It’s a reason I haven’t done it in the past. I was talking with my friend and the perspective she gave me made me think. She said well everything is expensive and that is true to anyone depending on your priorities. It reminds me of this quote “Do the things others won’t, so you can do what others can’t”. So for someone like the guy who was fitting my bindings on my snowboard he lives breathes and works in the industry he loves. He makes money doing his passion so he can do it all year long. It’s not my passion to go up their all the time but now that I got a taste of it I really want to make it a priority to set aside some money to do a few trips in the winter time. What you focus on you get!

Sorry I attempted to get to 31 lessons but I think these top 10 were so great I think will stop here.

I was so tired I didn’t take much photos, so here are a few we did take. 

Are you a snowboarder or a skier? What lessons have you learned?