10/06/2026
I remember when I was a teenager and I was trying to learn my very first flip on a trick ski (kind of like a wakeboard).
I just did not have the air awareness that many of my peers had in the sport. As soon as I went upside down I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to land on my feet.
I spent an entire year falling on my back and on the side of my face trying to land my very first flip. It took me about 4 times longer than every other person I’ve ever known who tried to learn their first flip. I even broke my nose in the process and had to have surgery on it. It took me well over 300+ tries and an entire summer of going out and, at the end of each training session, trying about 5 to 10 flips to end each day.
It seemed like the more I fell, the more it was ingrained in me that I could not do it, no matter how hard I tried. It took multiple coaches, lots of video analysis, and training on trampolines.
I began envisioning myself landing the flip and repeated in my head over and over “you’re landing this flip”.
Then One day, after a couple of the usual falls while giving it my all to execute on everything I had learned, IT HAPPENED.
As I finished my flip, I just got my ski underneath my feet enough to land, skip my butt across the water for about 20 feet as water sprayed everywhere and I rose out of the mist to realize I was still holding the handle and I had officially landed my first flip and rode away from it. It was so ugly but I did it. Tears poured down my face. I was so excited. I yelled in victory. Threw my fist in the air.
And Guess what happened? I landed my second flip within just a few more tries and before I knew it I had learned three to four more flip variations with spins by the end of the following year.
If you’ve ever struggled with breaking out of that pattern in your head that no matter what you do, you’ll never be enough and no matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to break through. This is your reminder that as weird as it may sound: you have to be pretty much delusional about believing in yourself, believing that you can do the thing before you actually do it.
The mind precedes all.