After roughly 20 years of snowboarding, I decided to make the switch to skiing for the 2016-2017 season. For context, I’m not learning to ski. My first year on the slopes was in Minnesota during the mid-90s. I learned to ski then, and have been fortunate enough to get in a couple of skiing runs every year since. This past season I dedicated 5 days to skiing, and the change felt great.  I’ve been loving the adrenaline rush that comes with pointing my skis downhill on a steep run.

A few weeks ago I dropped into Horseshoe Bowl (a double black diamond) at Breckenridge.  There was a solid 17 inches of fresh snow on the mountain that morning, and I was just getting the hang of skiing in powder.  Half way down the run I got a little too confident and took a very aggressive line.

After reaching a speed that was above my skill level, I decided to bail.  Rather than stopping, I sat down on the back of my skis and attempted to fall.  My right ski dug into the powder and turned hard to the right. Instead of popping off, the ski jammed into the snow and twisted my knee. (I had trouble walking for a week but I’m doing wonderful today).

The next morning I thought about my fall, reflecting on what I could have done differently.  I decided that the run was a controlled risk, and while most would conclude “Go slower,” I wanted to figure out how I could have successfully completed my line.  The more I thought, the more clear it became that if I was going to ski a challenging line, I needed to commit to my path. At the very least, if I had stayed over my skis and fell, my bindings would have probably released and I would have been okay. But of course I would have also had the opportunity to glide into the bottom of the run with my arms in the air, celebrating my early season accomplishment.

Like many things, this small lesson from the slopes made me think of FareHarbor. It reinforced that any calculated risk we take at FareHarbor needs full commitment.  If we don’t lean into our skis and commit to the challenge ahead, we will lose control of the outcome.  We risk ending up with a subpar result, and hurting the organization. Not committing 100% will result in wasted resources, the most precious of which is time.  Even worse, we might become afraid of taking another risk in the future.

We need to be 100% committed to a challenge if we want the best opportunity for success.  And worst case, if we at least lean in, we’ll be able to pick things back up and walk away on two feet. We’ll be able to look back and see what changes would have helped us reach success, and we’ll know if it’s a risk we want to take again in the future.