TLDR: Why skiing is good for the soul…and my new book is out.
One of my goals this year was ski more often (and look for a ski house). It’s an expensive hobby, but in the meantime, I’m lucky to have amazing friends who live in amazing mountain destinations who are willing to host me.
There’s something special about the cold mountain air, beautiful views, being alone with your thoughts, pushing yourself physically, and doing something that requires you to block everything else out and focus.
I might be shoehorning this into MMM vernacular, but perhaps these are the first principles of a great mountain meditation?
Being outside. There’s plenty of research, but I particularly like Shawn Achor’s work on the topic of happiness. Not only is being outside good for you, but apparently outdoor happiness is maximized at around 57 degrees Fahrenheit.
Meditation. I don’t think I need to qualify this one, the positive effects are near endless.
Cold Exposure. While seasonal depression can be brought on from prolonged cold and dark weather, shorter term exposure to cold has proven to reduce stress, anxiety, and also be good for longevity. It also just so happens cold plunges are having their own moment as well.
Exercise. Obviously right? Exercise is also proven to reduce depression, stress, anxiety, and so on and so forth. Dr. Stutz who I’ve been talking about recently says, the “most primal level (of your life force) is your relationship with your physical body.”
Focus. I’ve recently considered I may have some version of ADHD, with a need to do a million things, fidget, carry on multiple conversations at the same time, respond immediately to things out of fear of forgetting to, not paying attention in school, etc etc. Increasingly you see stories of brain function improving when mind and body are connected and focused, and in my experience, trying not ski into a tree or wipe out at 40mph is a pretty good forcing function for that.
Taken together, I think these are a few reasons why a mountain meditation is a step ahead of the typical time spent quietly self-reflecting, so in a recent trip to Whistler I wanted to push the experience a bit further and decided to try backcountry touring.
It’s the same sport as skiing except instead of a chairlift, you push yourself to skin up the mountain in search of a less crowded, more remote, and untouched line to ski. While I was there we had two days of overnight snow with near perfect sunshine during the day. Luckily, I took the GoPro along for the ride if you want to check it out!
See you Monday.
Oh, and PS: my new book Inevitable is now available on Amazon. It’s free on Kindle Unlimited for a limited time. Do me a solid and give it a good review, wouldya?
About Inevitable. Founders nor career professionals have the time to read every book or listen to every podcast on starting a company or operating with an entrepreneur's mindset. The goal with Inevitable was to create a powerful cliff notes style handbook, distilling advice from around the tech world on building generational companies. At the end of each chapter there is a QR code to a digital repository with the full-length works if you do choose to go deeper on any given topic.
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