Snowboarding - Leadership - huh?

So i was snowboarding over spring break in Colorado and i sure did learn a lot about leadership. might not make much sense but lemmie flush it out for you. the first run i did was alright, didn't do my best but it was alright, but for some reason i was just tenative. just kinda anxious; afraid even. i didnt want to wipe out. so after a few hours of taking it easy and still not doing too well i decided to "grab life by the horns" and just go for it. maybe it was a coincidence that "It's Not My Time" by 3 Doors Down was playing on my ipod. in the song it mentions the phrase "its not what we have, its what we believe."

and with that the pieces finally clicked. i decided i wasnt afraid to eat it. i decided that i knew i could handle whatever the mountain was going to throw at me. i decided to believe.

i hit the mountain hard and had some of the best runs of my life. and i just was able to correlate that to the rest of my life and how that concept of having faith in yourself is relevant to leadership. if you believe you can do something, then you're gunna give it your all. you won't just give up. if you're nervous, you'll shy away from your challenge, and it will own you. it will master you. instead of me being controlled by what the mountain limited me from doing and not doing, i took control of the mountain and i controlled the situation.

so for the entire trip i trusted my skill on the board and my confidence to keep me safe and i had a blast riding by far the best i ever have in my life.

On the final day we were riding the lift up to the top of the mountain and it traveled over a run called Desperado. it was a black riddled with moguls and a very very steep drop (black is the hardest dificulty of slopes). as we passed above it, i felt the mountain challenge me.  might sound weird, but i just heard it saying to me, "You can't do it matt. You aren't good enough." and thats when i decided to step up to the plate. i was off the lift first followed by my neighbor Ryan, my brother Alex, and my dad. i told them that i was going to conquer Desperado. alex thought about it, ryan declined, and dad thought better of it. so i buckled up, prepared to take it on alone. i sat down at the top of the run, took a deep breath, and kicked my board up and started my descent. as my board hit fresh powder, my ipod, which had been playing a shuffle of 94 songs all day, got to song number 84 on the shuffle. as i sped down, Don't Stop Believing by Journey began to reverberate throughout my mind, body, and spirit and i never looked back. i sped down the run, reaching the bottom in maybe a little more than two minutes, and this was a long run. by far, the fastest i had ever made it down the mountain on the hardest run. i never fell, never stumbled, never even came close to wiping out.

as i waiting at the bottom of the slopes for the other three to take the long route through Skydiver (an easier blue run, although still challenging to be fair), but surprisingly, i saw one by one as each of the figures manuevered down Desperado and met me at the bottom. all four of us had made PERFECT runs. that really spoke to me. just because i had been determined to take on something tedious, the rest of my group had followed me. by taking the first step, i had inspired others to follow me. even though some had not wanted to do it at all, they figured, heck if matt will do it it musn't be impossible.

I really learned the importance of confidence this week. if i believe it, it can happen. and i also saw a clear example of what it means to take risks for a team. if you put your neck at risk, others will see that and follow after your example. just something i've been learning.

lemmie know what you think.

-matt