I had to escape the hustle and bustle of the fall season. The holidays were as crazy as they always were, and therefore, I had to find an opportunity to get away. That opportunity came about when I jetted off to St. Barths to visit Hotel Manapany. The pristine waters, the clear skies with a sun you bask in while waiting for it to go down so you can see the moonlight reflected in the water, the Tomahawk steak as big as my head, and the old-fashioned to go with it, it was truly a paradise. However, it was an unexpected first surf lesson that my instructor used to teach me two philosophies about life. Just like my experience in my first scuba dive, this moment went from fear and trepidation to one of unbelievable clarity and renewed drive. Pierre, the man who wouldn’t let me say no, taught me to stay ahead of the wave, and where I look is where I go, both in and out of the water.
Stay ahead of the wave
When I first checked in, I was given a tour of the grounds where they listed off all of the amenities I had the privilege of using. I, of course, saw the barman mixing an old-fashioned and a spa where I could get a massage, and thought that was all I needed to know, and I could now go to my room and relax. But that was when I met the resort’s surf instructor, Pierre. He asked me if I wanted a surf lesson. It was nothing but enthusiastic hospitality. But there was a deeper concept at play that he didn’t know about. I am in a yes phase of my life. When I am asked if I want to do something, I respond with yes. Especially if my first instinct is to say no. He didn’t know that he just tapped into a fear of water, a fear of failure, and, maybe most important, a love of the movie Point Break.
Now, I wasn’t chasing bank robbers and learning about myself like our boy, Johnny Utah. But while I was struggling to figure out the concept of catching a wave, Pierre told me to stay ahead of the wave. The wave is something you can’t predict. It will come at its own time, and you have to be ready for it. The only way to do that is to paddle out, circle the waves coming in that you aren’t ready for, and put yourself in position to catch the one made for you. You have to be ready for the wave by doing the work and putting yourself in a position to ride it when it shows up. It was a lesson in success for me. I have been spending years working and writing, and putting myself in a position to capture an opportunity, all while watching so many pass me by and getting frustrated. Then one showed up that was perfect for the position I had put myself in. Had I not been ready, just like the wave, the opportunity would have passed me by.
Where you look is where you go
But I got ahead of myself a little there. Because there was another lesson I learned the moment I got on the board. And, as it were, the moment I got off the board in the same moment. You see, I discovered that I had zero ability to stay upright on the board even while lying on my stomach. I got on the board and immediately flipped over. It was a cause of some incredible frustration. I was never going to get the hang of standing on a board if I couldn’t learn to lie on it first. That was when Pierre told me to look where my head is at. Where am I looking? I was looking at the board, at the water. “You’re missing everything out here, what you came here for. Look at the horizon, where you look is where you go. If you keep putting your eyes down at the water around you, that is where you’re going to end up.”
Ten minutes on a surfboard and Pierre was taking me to school. Took attendance in his philosophy class and learned that it was so easy to get bogged down in the struggles of the moment that I was missing the big picture. I was missing the scenery, the serenity of being on the water long before anyone else in the morning. The magic of my first time trying to surf at the age of 42. And, the fact that while I struggled to stay on the board, I had completely ignored my fear of water. Once I started focusing on where I wanted to go (more than fifteen feet from shore on a board), I was able to stay upright.
An hour later, my arms and shoulders were ripped to shreds from the work, I had swallowed three gallons of ocean water, and I had never been happier. I rode a wave. On my stomach, let’s not get crazy here. But I did it. And when I walked away, surfing with Pierre at Hotel Manapany was an experience that I wouldn’t just take with me forever, but would apply everything he intentionally or unintentionally taught me to my life on a day-to-day basis.
