~Experience is not a skill. It is an attitude~
Ralph Marston
The way I manage my life is a little bit weird. I tend to handle the chaos of my life and put everything back in its place. It can be at work, with my family or with my 10,000 projects. However, the moment I reach this status of calm and serenity that we call “routine”, I make sure to drop a little bit of chaos into my life to put everything in disorder again. I think I like the challenge chaos brings me to my life while I benefit from a good rest once everything is settled. This usually requires me to leave my comfort zone. And this is what I did 2 weeks ago during spring break.
For the past year or so, my 6 yr old William has kept asking to try another sport. My son is the sporty one; he does all kind of sports already (soccer, baseball, hockey, football, etc). He has everything from turf soccer cleats to quality bats from Easton. But there was another sport on his list: snowboarding! Since we live 25 minutes away from the mountain, I thought it would make sense to eventually try it.
I had all kind of excuses last year and we never went. This year again, we were about to skip the snowboard season for nebulous reasons. But this year, he had to skip his interior soccer session due to conflicting schedules and the arrival of his little brother. I kind of feel cheap for not going snowboarding with him yet. So I’ve waited for “the right moment” during December, January and February. Still nothing. 2 weeks before he started his spring break, I finally called and booked a 1.5 hours class for him… and me!
How Cool Was it?
To clearly understand the situation, you have to keep in mind that I’m athletic too. However, I never been a good “winter athlete”. I just learned how to skate backwards this winter and have never been near a mountain or worn a pair of skis in my life. I’ve always wanted to try snowboarding, but never went. We finally had our lesson (an amazing father & son activity by the way) and it was amazing! I actually fell in love with this sport and so did my kid! We had a blast and almost bought a snowboard the same day. Mind you, my butt hurt for 3 days but I still really love this sport!
This is what I regret the most about this experience; why had I waited so long to do it?
Doing Something for the First Time
I don’t think I was afraid to try it – ‘cause I’m not scared of hurting myself.
I don’t think I was afraid to look ridiculous – ‘cause I don’t mind what other people think about me.
But I had to be scared about something if I waited for about a year before living this moment. On my way back home, I started to ask myself what bugged me so much about snowboarding. And I finally found it; it’s about doing something for the first time!
When you do something for the first time, you can’t imagine what it will look like;
You can’t think of how you will react;
You can’t figure if you will like it or not;
Basically, you can’t “process” in your brain what is going to happen.
This is what bugged me; I didn’t know where to go, what it looked like to be on the mountain, how people act and accordingly how I should act. I didn’t know if my son would like it or want to stop after 30 minutes (leaving me with a coach for another hour??). It wasn’t a big thing, but it was just enough to plant the seed of procrastination.
People Regret Only What They Didn’t Do
I once had a very inspiring talk with someone who visits people in terminal phase of their illness. His responsibility is to talk with these people and accompany them on their last trip. He told me that most people that are about to die confess that they don’t regret much of what they did in their life. But they certainly regret what they hadn’t done!
I’m trying to remember this concept once in a while and thought of sharing it with you. Each time I try something new, I’m glad I did and regret that I hadn’t done it sooner! I just hope I’ll have enough time to do everything on my list!
Financial professional and online entrepreneur, I'm best known as The Financial Blogger. I want to make money because I like enjoying life the way it should be; with a lot of great food and wine! I also love to spend time with my lovely wife and 3 kids!
That’s awesome you finally tried it! I totally fail at sports (although I love them) but once I tried snowboarding, I fell in love with it – and am now obsessed with it, especially every winter (it’s been 3 seasons now). I still suck at it but I’m getting better and it’s soooo much fun. Great job finally trying it – and now loving it!
I love this! And you’re totally right – you never know exactly how much you will or won’t like something until you try it for yourself. That’s the great thing about having kids – sometimes we try things we might not have if we didn’t have them in our lives 🙂
How fun! I used to snowboard when I had a steady job and lived closer to a mountain, but I’ve gone maybe once or twice over the last four years, so I’m actually trying to sell mine. Anyway, I feel that way about travel. In fact this year is the first year I said f it, I’m going somewhere so I’m going to NY and Hawaii this year, but the thing is I didn’t really have a savings plan set up so I put it on a credit card. I do have a hard time reconciling saving that money and not traveling, versus what you are saying which is to not let life go by with regrets. But I just have to strike a balance between the two, and somehow make it a priority by possibly sacrificing some instant gratification purchases.
With my 3 kids, I didn’t travel much during the past 6 years. I went to NYC last year for my birthday and it was awesome! It’s always hard to find a balance between what you want to do and what you can afford to do!
I’m in that boat with skiing. It’s been so long since I’ve been up to the mountain, but I just haven’t been able to afford it. It really is an expensive sport. It’s so much fun though.
Skiing aside, I probably should make a point of doing some thing that I’ve always avoided trying. You’ll never know if you’d like it or not until you give it a shot. I guess the last thing that I probably did for the first time was launching a blog. Now I realized how enjoyable it is and wonder what took me so long to try it.