Happy New Year 2023!
It’s the New Year, Happy New Year’s. That calendar date opens “the time of resolutions,” that inward reflection of self, sometimes deep, sometimes ephemeral, most often transitory.
A writer I enjoy reading, Susan Moore, describes making a list of forty resolutions last year and in this new year having to confront her failings. “I regret to inform you I received a failing grade.” She is taking a new approach for the New Year … she has made only five resolutions: “drink more water; write more; keep your feet on the ground; love the people who love you and love them well; and focus on what you have instead of what you don’t.” An eminently practical approach … focus on what’s important. We wish Susan a year of success.
Do you participate in the “I’m Going to Change Me This Year Resolution Game”? Is making resolutions important to you? If so, what do you resolve? Are your resolutions general or specific? Do you include testable measures of success in your resolutions?
In his autobiography, Arnold Schwarzenegger says he started writing down resolutions, specifically actionable resolutions, very early in his life and career. He attributes his success in his life endeavors, sports, film, entrepreneurship and politics, to this practice.
“I always wrote down my goals, like I’d learned to do in the weight-lifting club back in Graz. It wasn’t sufficient just to tell myself something like ‘My New Year’s resolution is to lose twenty pounds and learn better English and read a little bit more.’ No. That was only a start. Now I had to make it very specific so that all those fine intentions were not just floating around. I would take out index cards and write what I was going to:
“get twelve more units in college;
“earn enough money to save $5,000;
“work out five hours a day;
“gain seven pounds of solid muscle weight; and
“find an apartment building to buy and move into.”
Schwarzenegger also emphasizes the importance of setting really ambitious goals:
“People were always talking about how few performers there are at the top of the ladder, but I was always convinced there was room for one more. I felt that, because there was so little room, people got intimidated and felt more comfortable staying on the bottom of the ladder. But, in fact, the more people that think that, the more crowded the bottom of the ladder becomes! Don’t go where it’s crowded. Go where it’s empty. Even though it’s harder to get there, that’s where you belong and where there’s less competition.”
Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story (Simon & Schuster, 2013)
Now back to us. This blog is about skiers, riders and food. If you are reading The Well-Fed Skier, you fall into one or more of these categories (or maybe you’re just a “see what’s on the Web” junkie). What resolutions are meaningful for us?
Susan has perhaps shown us the way. Skiing and riding are not solitary experiences. We each must navigate the mountain on our own, but we almost always prefer to share the experience with others … family, friends, other skiers and riders. Our first resolution echoes Susan’s, cherish your family and friends, share your life with them and invite them share their lives with you. Your circle expands to encompass all skiers, riders and mountain life people. What you do individually does impact society. Measure your success with quality time spent with those who matter the most.
A constant theme here is to eat better to ski and ride better and live better. There is more and more evidence about the negative effects of sugar in our diet. Sugar makes us sick, reduces the quality of our lives, and shortens the time we have here. A second resolution is to reduce to fullest extent possible eating sugar; eliminate or minimize the number of sodas, energy drinks and fruit juices, eat an orange instead, take your coffee without or cut the sugar you put into it in half, stay out of the center aisles of grocery stores where they sell all of the industrially processed foods loaded with sugar, …. Your measure of success is feeling better.
Enjoy that you have the opportunity to go to the mountains and experience their wonder. Revel in each run, each turn, each snowflake as it falls. You are amongst the very fortunate to see and feel Mother Nature in her finest winter coat; trees laden with snow and fields of purest white, all sparkling in sunlight and moonlight. Savor and enjoy, let the winter scene warm your heart and soul; carry those feelings into and throughout the rest of your life. Do what you love more, do it better.
We wish you a Happy New Year filled with joy and happiness, fresh powder and more quality turns.
