What surfing has taught me
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Two weeks on Fuerteventura
Two days ago, I returned from my surfing trip from Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. I spent almost every day trying to get better at surfing, and even though I've learnt so much, I'm still far from where I would like to be.
When I started these two weeks, my goal was to surf green waves with no problem, and even though I got to this level, I didn't surf one green wave with no problem. I fell more than I was standing (lol), missed the right timing pretty often, wasn't paddling enough, and faced many other struggles.
Because of that, one could think when I got home, I was ready to quit, but to be honest with you, I haven't had that fun and felt that motivated in a very long time. And I wondered why that is…
The reason why I didn’t quit
I think one reason is that by being in the ocean and trying to surf, I quickly realized that focusing on the technical aspects and getting the waves as soon as possible would only take away the joy for me. Why? Because my timeline for "getting it right" was just not realistic and very goal but not process oriented. (Which, by the way, is something I noticed in other areas of my life as well) Switching this tunnel perspective to a more open one, which meant focusing on the technical aspects and creating the right mindset, made me enjoy surfing regardless of how successful I was in the moment. Because of that, I know now that focusing on establishing the right way of thinking and practicing the technique will, at some point, pay off.
That's why I want to share a few lessons I've learned regarding having the right mindset in the water because these lessons are helpful not only with surfing but in our day-to-day life. As a side note: isn't it interesting how everything we do is so intertwined and connected that we can take a lesson from one experience and apply it in another?
Lessons that stuck with me
When you decide to try a wave, commit to it 100%. You need to be entirely determined to make the wave.
It's already a win in trying to take a wave even when you fail to surf it. Because In the learning process, it is less about getting the wave perfectly but rather about experimenting with the waves and learning to understand why something worked or didn't work. With that approach, you focus on the process instead of the final destination because with surfing, at least from my understanding, there is always something to learn; in other words, there is never a complete finish line.
Two key ingredients to developing surfing skills are: practice, as in repetition and reflecting on it, and patience, as in enduring the 1 million times you mess up because you believe in trying over and over; there is something in it for you.
Learn to take a wave with calm and focus even when it feels super stressful. When the wave picks up speed, you slow down mentally. First, this allows you to stay present and makes you enjoy the moment more and second, it also helps you to do the techniques correctly, giving you a higher chance to succeed with your wave.
Remind yourself that slow progress is still progressing, even if it doesn't feel like it. Progress is progress, regardless of how long it takes.
You cannot avoid struggle. Struggling is part of the game of becoming better. Without struggle, there is no growth.
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