Easy To Understand, Hard To Do
Posted: Thursday, January 20, 2011
by Greg Smith
Several weeks ago I traveled to Cuba with my family where we stayed at the same hotel as the year before. The day after we arrived I was eager to see George. He was patient enough to give me several hours of windsurfing instruction the year before. I went down to the beach and was told that George was no longer working at the hotel. Although I was disappointed, I arranged for some lessons with another instructor. The next day when I woke up I was somewhat hesitant about showing up for my lesson, I thought “Do I really want to torture myself again?” The year before I spent three days falling off the wind surfer and dragging my but out of the water. Just the thought of the year before was tiring me out. Nonetheless, I ventured down to the beach and prepared myself for punishment. After day one (1.5 hrs) I was plain tuckered out, but I had made progress and was looking forward to the next day of instruction. The following morning at 10 am sharp I was on the beach and rearing to go. My instructor reinforced the basics, taught me a few new skills, and sent me out into the turquoise sea. As I tried out my new moves I found myself struggling to stay on the board, but continued to improve. On several occasions I heard people cheering on the beach. These cheers seemed to coincide with the times I managed to stay on the board, but surely these people weren’t cheering for me? As it turned out, they were cheering for me. I had developed my own little fan club, and I was cheap entertainment! At the end of it all, these people were happy for me as they watched me surf cautiously around the bay – I had finally managed to put it all together.
Windsurfing was easy to understand, but hard to do. However, had I not endured the punishment of trial and error, and been willing to fail, I never would have succeeded. And although it was a small success, it was worth the effort.
When you take on any new challenge, rest assured there will be times when you fall off the board and into the water. There will also be times when you don’t feel like crawling back onto the board. When this happens, be strong, stick it out, and persevere. Remember the wind often changes direction, but you control the sail.
In life, “stick-to-it-ness” is one of those things that is easy to understand but hard to do. But the results are worth it.
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