Thanks to the deposit of my unpaid salary, I was able to go snowboarding here in Japan, and in my life actually, for the first time last weekend. It was also my first experience of a snowfield, something of a rarity back in Australia. I know we have a few snowfields in Aus, but they were always too far away for me to bothered going.
But it was a great experience, both for the fun of the snowboarding itself, and also for the lessons I learnt. Lessons about myself and about the learning process.
I often teach that knowing a fact intellectually in your conscious mind, and living it in your subconscious are two completely different things. But even that concept itself was something I think I knew more in my concious mind than my subconcious mind until this weekend.
Learning a new sport, especially one which uses a totally different form of motive force and balance, is a real test of the link between conscious thinking and subconscious feeling. My friend who arranged the whole trip is quite an adept snowboarder, and he spent a while telling me what to do to control the board and to turn, and stay upright.
Intellectually, I completely understood what he was saying. I could even do the physics in my mind on how to distribute my weight when turning, and how to control the board etc. However, in practice, my body refused to do the things my mind told it, instead relying on the ‘programs’ which already existed in my subconcious in regards to balance especially.
My natural reaction to the board turning was to lean more upright to maintain my balance, but this serves only to dig the ege of the board into the snow and flip you over. To complete a turn requires to lean into the turn then stand momentarily and redistribute your weight to the other edge to complete it.
In the two days of trying, I only succeeded in completing this three times. All three were at very slow speeds where I could think through the process as I did it. It will take several more days of practice until I can put the process into my subconcious and make it part of my natural behaviour.
This is why repetition is so important when you are trying to learn something new, especially when trying to shape your personality into a more successful one.
If you want to attract something into your life, you need to become the sort of person that has that thing already. You need to program your subconcious on how to make that turn before you can actually do it properly. The same goes for successful living.
Luckily you can practice in your mind, using your imagination, and this will work just as well as physically experiencing the event.
The best bit about practicing in your mind, it hurts a heck of a lot less when you fall over!
