Livin’ the Dream: New Year’s resolutions

Everything I need to know about life, I learned from skiing. Right? Well, I have at least learned enough things from skiing that I should be able to translate those into my everyday life. Skiing teaches us so many things, like respect gets respect, body awareness and how (hopefully) to anticipate the reactions of others, to name a few. So while traditionally, my resolutions have been extremely on-snow based, I thought it might be time to see about transferring a few of those lessons into the real world.

Practice gratitude daily

It’s funny, when winter rolls around I find gratitude so much easier to find. I am grateful to be in the mountains and skiing, no matter the conditions. I am grateful for r@*n, as it brings us a firmer, stronger base for all that snow. I am even grateful for death cookies, because they can be hilariously fun to ski. It’s that whole “raised from ice” concept that New Englanders are famous for. It is always a good day when you’re on skis. But … I struggle to find gratitude in my non-ski life. Raised an academic, I was taught to critique everything rather than enjoying what life has to offer.

I started a gratitude practice after attending an international real estate conference and it has helped me open my eyes to the littlest things. All I do is start my day with two — just two — things that I am grateful for from either the previous day or what is going to happen. Like a great late night phone call with a friend or that the BF randomly made us sausage gravy and poached eggs for breakfast. That’s pretty awesome stuff that I need to be thankful for. 

Focus on the small things

I think about improving my skiing constantly. I analyze my ankle movements, how my center of gravity moves throughout the turn and am always focused on rotating my upper body in a counter rotative movement to my lower. Even something as tiny as a flick of the wrist can throw off form for a few turns. I ski so much that I can think of those things without even thinking about them. Small details to which I am always paying attention.

But those little things escape me when I’m home. Like putting my shoes immediately on the boot dryer when I get home so they’re not lying in the middle of the room. Or putting my dirty dishes in the sink. A bad habit from dormitory life, where everything stayed in your room at all times. If I can train my pinky toe to activate in a turn, then I think I can remember to put my clothes away before I go to bed. Little habits can make big changes in our lives, just like small movements can be the difference between on which level of the podium you stand. 

Sometimes, you gotta do it
twice to get it right

An instructor friend used this phrase to remind his students that we don’t always get things right on the first try — nor, really, should we. Every time we try something new — a drastic change in snow surface, a brand new drill or a trail we’ve never skied before — we anticipate that there could be a struggle. It won’t be easy the first time around and maybe not even the 10th. It takes a bit for your body and mind to adjust to the situation before moving forward productively.

Anticipating mistakes gives us the freedom to try that new thing, to go up to that new person and start a conversation, to try writing that novel or attending that paint and sip. It’s okay to try and fail, it is okay to not be perfect and to accept the limitations of your mind and body. As long as you keep trying to move them forward. I am resolved to be more open to the challenges that life has in store for me, to approach a change in circumstances as I would a new trail. Like an adventure that I will be a lot better at the next run.

We spend so much of our time talking about what the resort should be doing to make our skiing experience better. But what if we took that energy (or at least some of it) and thought about what we could do to make ourselves and our community better? My head is always so focused on the mountain and being a skier, that I forget that I am a person as well. And so I am resolved to take the lessons learned on the mountain and bring them to life.

Merisa Sherman is a long time Killington resident, KMS coach, bartender and local Realtor. She can be reached at femaleskibum@gmail.com.