Achieving Our Dreams
Conventional wisdom tells us that breakthroughs in life cannot be made without enormous effort sustained over a long period of time. In every field there are many entrenched, traditional beliefs that present insurmountable hurdles to achieving the remarkable. This thinking is old-fashioned and unnecessary. As an expert teacher of skiing, I regularly enable skiers of intermediate ability to ski moguls in half a day and double black diamond runs by the end of the day. As an expert teacher on leadership and inspiration, we can achieve the same breakthroughs in a remarkably short period of time. There’s no difference between skiing and leadership - we achieve breakthroughs in both every day.
In his book “Illusions” Richard Bach wrote, “Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they are yours.”
It amazes me that in skiing so many skiers remain average or mediocre when they do not need to be. And I am equally amazed to see the same thing happen over and over again in organizations.
In the choice of our work, we often exercise similar limitations. In my monthly column in Motto Magazine I have written about how we can make our dreams come true and turn our passions into activities that serve the world - no matter what our hearts are called to do. People regularly make fortunes doing what they love - and all of us have the power to do the same.
Over this winter, some 50 leaders have visited with me in Colorado to learn how to ski better and how to lead better - both can be accomplished in a fraction of the time we usually expect - if we have passion, willingness to learn and change, and a desire to improve - and most importantly, a firm belief that there are no limits.
March 19th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Hi Lance,
Where do you teach skiing?
I get to ski at Aspen as my spouse of 30 years has been teaching at Aspen for the last 10 seasons.
Also — take a look at http://www.edgechange.com if you don’t know about it. Weems Westfedlt has a wicked sense of humour & a bunch of great stuff to share about skiing both for professionals & skiing enthusiasts. I love his sports diamond. (based on Peter Koestenbaum’s original work — and applied to skiing in this case) You can read his whole book online.
cheers/Carrol
p.s. the article Garry Schleifer & I interviewed you for — finally got published/thanks again for that/I’ll send you the final copy separately as I don’t think if can attach anything here.
April 7th, 2007 at 5:27 am
Hi Lance!
It has been a long time since we last interacted. I bumped into you on the wikipadeida of all places and wad redirected here. “Follow your heart” has been an old theme but though everybody would like to follow their passion, the chances of success improve considerably if one is able to idenitify the passion at an early age especially if it happens to be one with a poor market profile. The practical perspective cannot be ignored. In case you are interested, ny latest published article on the subject is under http://mypyp.wordpress.com/2007/03/07/a-double-life-heart-or-mind-money-or-passion-in-choosing-ones-career/.
Just wondering- do you have any presence in India?
April 10th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
I can honestly say that skiing with Lance and working with Lance is one of the highlights of my ski trips. A man who truly lives his principles and loves to live life to the fulliest. Lance and his wife are gracious hosts and great friends. May every day be filled with powder and sunshine.