Ride The Wave
Last summer I spent three early mornings at a conference learning and trying to surf. I don’t think I can say I actually caught a wave but I did manage to stand up on the board for a few seconds in the whitewash and catch a very brief feeling of what it is like to ride a wave. I’ll be spending three more early mornings this summer at that conference trying again and will catch a wave this time.
While I was struggling to paddle out or waiting for a wave to come to try and catch, I had plenty of opportunities to watch others successfully catch and ride waves. The first thing I noticed was how effortlessly it looked as the paddled and then popped up on the wave–I still can’t figure out how something that felt and was so hard for me, can look so easy to someone else. The second thing I noticed was how it appeared that once they caught their wave the surfers were fully present, enjoying the ride, and soaking in every second of it because they knew that wave would come to an end.
Sure they’d catch another wave (while I continued to get punished by the Huntington Beach surf) but there was no way to know if the next wave would be bigger or smaller, last longer or shorter, or if they’d catch it as clean or cleaner than their last ride.
The activity of surfing was not changing but no two waves were the same, which forced the surfers to enjoy the wave they were on and ride it as long as they could.
The pursuit of your authentic life is not that different from what I observed in the ocean.
Whether it is in your career, your relationships, your creative outlets, etc. you will experience periods of time where everything is flowing, your pursuit seems easy, and life is good—you’ve caught that wave.
You will also experience periods of time when your creativity is down, your pursuit seems challenging, and life is a little more difficult–your ride came to an end and you’re paddling back out to catch the next one.
And sometimes you will experience periods of time where life seems sucky–your ride ended with the wave crashing down on you and a wipeout.
I imagine riding a wave feels like it lasts a lot longer than it actually does and I know the waves we ride in our pursuit don’t last forever—while riding your wave focus on the ride and not that the wave is going to end at some point. The wave will never be as long as you’d like it to be and you don’t want to waste any of that time thinking about its end.
If you understand your pursuit is a series of waves you can maximize and enjoy the ride while you’re on the wave, maintain an optimistic and positive mindset as you paddle back out to catch the next wave, and realize that when you do wipeout it doesn’t mean your surf session is over and pick yourself back up and paddle back out—just like you never leave the gym without ending with on a made shot in basketball, you never end a surf session without a ride into shore…even I ended each day with a “ride” into shore.
No two waves will ever be the same but they all will be special and create great opportunities and memories, so when you catch one be sure to ride it as long as you can.
Surf’s up!
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
