We mentioned that experiencing a crisis promotes an attitude of change. Crises are opportunities for change because they allow to leave our comfort zone and relate differently to skiing. It is never too late to ask ourselves what kind of skier we want to be. Instead of justifying an impediment by age, fitness, or whatever the cause, we should ask ourselves what really we want to achieve in skiing.
Change can be perceived in two ways: as a threat or as an opportunity. To stop skiing how we are skiing does not mean we have to suffer in the process. Suffering appears when we perceive change as a threat. Adopting the attitude of a victim of change means clinging to what is going to be left behind and opposing the future and the unknown. Taking change as an opportunity means not being intimidated by leaving our comfort zone because what is to come is better than what is now.
Feeling lacking in the way we ski can promote motivation to change our own skiing. Many times we change in response to a challenge that we can’t avoid and that produces a constructive indignation. This attitude of generalized irritation turns, at first, into dissatisfaction with ourselves then leads to a decision to act, which may generate great motivation.
In these situations, the instructor and coach themselves intervene by challenging us in order to encourage a confrontational attitude towards change. Generally, when facing change, be it technical, mental, or emotional management, we tend to be moderate in our actions. On certain occasions, in order to induce change, these professionals apply a provocative attitude aimed at challenging our indolent attitude.
If we do not ask for help to change our skiing, do not accept that we are not skiing right, or do not want to be seen as needy, we may show self-control by pretending to know how to do it. We may not ask for collaboration because we pretend to exhibit strength by not showing the weak aspects of our own skiing or because we simply find it difficult to ask for assistance to solve our own condition.
Not asking for support means not recognizing our own weaknesses, not having others recognize them, or putting ourselves in inferior conditions. It is an ill-advised attitude that produces discomfort then, when we decide to change our skiing, what better to turn to the help of a professional? To ask for help is to adopt a proactive learning attitude. Not knowing how to accept an offer is to show that we do not recognize our own limitations.
One option before encouraging a change in behavior is to change our attitude, but it should be remembered that this alone does not change our skiing behavior. Attitude is considered as something stable but can be changed based on internal or external indicators. It is generated by knowledge, affectivity, or by our previous experiences. In the process of attitude change, we reevaluate the new information and compares it with our way of thinking and beliefs, then define whether it is favorable or unfavorable with respect to our value judgments.
Change awareness
We may decide to modify our skiing behavior but until we experience a change at our mental level it is remote that we will produce a real one at our behavioral level. In general, we do not change because we distrust our own thoughts and our own abilities to change our skiing.
To eliminate the reaction to the unfamiliar we must first eliminate our resistance to change at the level of muscular tensions as they affect our motor skills in general. But since there are not only muscular but also mental tensions, our modification of muscular tensions will depend on the mental ones because most of our skiing occurs in our head.
We may think about improving our technique but the least we experience is change. We prefer to remain in the comfort of our discomfort. No one can convince us to change, only ourselves can do it but for that, we need to break with old thinking habits because our old beliefs do not lead to technical improvement. When we change our beliefs we change the way we ski, and when we find a better way, we start to enjoy it.
We can improve our skiing from our own imagination but not from memory. The sooner our previous behavior is forgotten; the sooner the new way of skiing will be discovered. We memorize an experience of the change we have made but have a tendency to relate it to our previous behavior. If we keep repeating the new experience, we will come to appreciate the changes and will tend not to resist them any longer.
However, it is easy to get caught up in perpetual waiting, in the eternal discontent of our own skiing, postponing the moment to really start enjoying. How much time we waste waiting to change? How long do we wait to actually ski? Waiting is a mental attitude. Waiting to improve our skiing means that we desire a better future and that we are not satisfied with our present skiing. This ‘state of waiting’ between the negative of our present skiing and the good of our future skiing generates, unconsciously, a conflict between the here and now and the desired future.
This waiting, this wishing in the future, diminishes the quality of our present skiing since we act in an undesired present but our mind is in the future. It is positive to set goals but not indefinitely, or to ski on the basis of those goals that are not even initiated. The only thing we can count on is our present skiing and from it we must generate the changes for our future skiing.
We have a tendency to ski based on technical concepts and beliefs, that is to say, by means of our mental and motor patterns that form our way of skiing. When the skiing concepts are assembled like a puzzle, we consolidate the change we are looking for, acquiring a meaning for us. These patterns and beliefs are structured over time, that is to say, they become automatic.
Knowing ourselves is the basis for modifying our inefficient skiing habits. Before deciding to change it is necessary to know what kind of skier we are and what kind of skier we want to become. Learning to perceive ourselves is the first step to change. Identifying the undesirable elements makes us aware that change is possible. Noticing small changes in our performance helps to prepare for more significant changes to come.
Sometimes we demand too much of ourselves without recognizing and enjoying the skiing we have accomplished. We have a tendency to become accustomed to the discomfort generated by our own skiing believing that it is part of the activity. On the other hand, we may not worry about where we want to go, nor question the way we ski; for us it is enough to simply glide and adapt to the situations that arise. We may have the desire to reach a certain level but do not commit ourselves; we speak out but do not act. We do nothing to achieve it but complain, suffer, and lament about it. Perhaps we do the minimum to get started as an excuse to calm our conscience that we tried, but then this attitude becomes a self-deception, a justification of our own failures.
To conclude, we can change our skiing if we decide to do so. It is assumed that, if we did not do it, it is because we did not want to, this being an act of our own will. When we decide, we will be determined to ski differently from what we ski, therefore, our transformation will be oriented towards our awareness of the change rather than the image of the change itself.
