Brilliant Skiing Every Day Quotes

“Am I willing to temporarily ski less well than I ski now in exchange for skiing much better soon?”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“Don’t forget to choose to experience the action at a deeply connected level. If you don’t choose it, you may miss the really good stuff.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“Furthermore, I can go beyond the feet. What does my body feel like in general? What is the rhythm of my skiing today? Am I allowing myself to flow, or am I holding position? What is the snow texture like? What does the wind feel like in my face? What energy do I get from the other skiers? (Is there a sense of being crowded? Beaten down by weather? Delight?) These are not questions for answering with thought.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“In skiing, it’s the same. In fact, most days, my start-up sequence includes a conscious awakening of the feet. Before I start sliding, I center myself. Then as I take off (after re-centering myself), I put my mind into my feet to find out (without verbal language) just what they are learning – through the boots and skis – about the snow that day (or about the condition of my skis). These first few moments of foot feel are the wake up call for the whole run.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“Breathe “into” your center while you ski. Park your mind there. Move with it and from it. This is how dynamic balance is achieved, and how you can find awareness of the present moment. This is also how to acquire effortless, fearless commitment.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by touching both at once.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“Without results, my process lacks meaning and purpose. Without process, my results are unreachable. To hold one or the other is inherently limiting. To hold both is powerful.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“Problem solving requires choosing between substantially independent options, while holding polarity is about using all your options because they need each other.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“Holding polarity is the art of maintaining dynamic tension between opposing, interdependent imperatives in order to achieve the purpose each pole shares with the other.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“When you ski or snowboard, you step out and become more than you were. You harness the power of gravity and momentum, and this creates a new you. When you put on the skis and boots, you are amplified and transformed into something else — a different realm of relationship with your universe.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“turns the fear of the unknown into the adrenaline driven delight of risk.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“When you get to the point where you really think you’ve got it, it’s time to start over with the fundamentals — just at the moment before you realize, in fact, you know nothing.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“Meaningful improvement does not always happen in great, big breakthrough chunks. In fact, those are more often the results of many smaller, and sometimes barely perceptible, shifts of awareness.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“I can be brilliant each day I go out — in my manner, training, tactics, poise, presence, attitude, engagement, attention, centering, feeling, sense of humor, and my will to shine, even if it’s a brilliance only I notice.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“However, the perception of the plateau as a bad place — where you’re stuck, stalled, and trying to break out — is a distortion of the process. We don’t need to struggle across the plateau. Instead, it is here where we anchor the biggest discoveries. The moments of confusion, frustration, and even regression ignite the learning process.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“This clean and determined switch from one set of edges to the other is the bottom line, end-of-the-day, big kahuna, boss hog, essential, prime directive of great skiing.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day

“Turning is the fun. Just getting down the mountain is not meaningful. Turning is the sacred art of skiing.”
― Weems Westfeldt, Brilliant Skiing Every Day