eljefeI would just encourage taking the path of personal development, while you pursue the dream of skiing, or career advancement, or whatever else. Carol Dweck wrote a book called, 'Mindset.' She illustrates the concept of fixed vs growth mindsets. In short, as it pertains to this thread, a fixed mindset views everything as binary, either or. In this case, either broke ski bum, or corporate slave. In reality, we live in the most flexible, dynamic age of commerce, economy, business and world view that has arguably ever existed. If it is of importance to you, you can have it all. I will agree that it's not likely you will get a traditional 9-5 that provides you salary, benefits etc and truly live the total immersion outdoor lifestyle, and I also agree that you won't be able to fuck off completely, ski and drink every night and create any sort of vision for yourself beyond that. But I do think that if your intention and expectation for your life is that you want both.. you want to ski your face off and you want to do something with upside and a future, the world is that of abundant and rich opportunity and you will manifest that. Skiing all day everyday still only occupies 40-60 hrs of time including commute. There is more than enough time inside of the 168 hours we are all given per week to work to pay the bills & work to create something more for yourself, and ski, if you demand it of yourself.
This is accurate, going 120% full ski bum is pretty much the most awesome dead end ever. I was broke as shit living in Leadville for two years and Glenwood Springs for a year, ate like shit, smoked a pack a day, was insanely broke but yeah sure it’s all good because I was fucking ripping 24/7 right? But... It also turns out I’m an alcoholic and living that lifestyle would’ve ended up killing me, I was insanely drunk at all hours of the day and didn’t realize I needed help until my second trip to the hospital when my family wouldn’t pick me up unless I went straight to rehab after. Did that whole song and dance, came out and immediately picked up some bourbon, and went to jail a week later for spitting on a cop during a different hospital visit a few months prior... I don’t even remember doing it.
Now I’ve basically been forced to re-evaluate the concept of centering my life on being a ski bum- I used to think it just meant having no money but that’s okay because I have drinking and I shred every day. Basically I had to ask myself: realistically, is this completely insane considering the way the world works right now? I had to reconsider my entire life, it revolved around the ski industry but I started to wonder why my depressive episodes would get so severe in the summer (I would take any shitty little job I could get an interview for and would just stay plastered the whole time like a good employee). Last year I decided to totally overhaul everything and started working my ass off 36hrs a week detailing cars while also going to school to become an ASE certified mechanic, and I’ll be graduating in November and get to work on cars and be very satisfied with what I do for a living at the end of the day. Now with this new work-study-life balance I have enough dough to actually to get a pair of skis or bindings when I break my shit, enough to pay rent/buy food, and on top of all that I can actually remember what the hell tricks I did the day before (seven months sober). It’s all about balance- my life still revolves around skiing but my quality of life is abundantly better in all other aspects as well. I pour my valuable time into many different arenas, not just going ALL IN on skiing and partying.
PS love this thread. We gotta keep each other on the up and up
