Remembering Your "WHY"

Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love?

I'm not talking about falling in love with another person, I'm talking about falling in love with a sport, a hobby, your job, an art form, something that lights your heart on fire, your dream, your......purpose?

When I was little one of my favorite ski friends (and best friends) was Wendy. Wendy and I loved to ski together as our time together was effortless. When I was 10 years old we were at Alpine Meadows flying down a tree trail called Hot Wheels Gulley. We were going as fast as we could, no one told us what to do, my hair was flying in the wind, and I had a feeling of freedom that I craved as a young girl. That was the moment when I fell in love with skiing. A few years later, I was watching the 1992 Olympics and Kristi Yamaguchi was gliding effortlessly across the ice with her leg high above her head. She had this smile on her face of pure joy. And it seemed in that moment that her soul was speaking to my soul and that I too could be an Olympian. I wanted to experience whatever she was experiencing that made her smile like that. It was pure magic to me. I also knew that I wasn’t very good at figure skating, but I remember thinking to myself, “What if I could do the same thing… but as a skier!”

My brother and I meeting Kristi Yamaguchi at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics

THAT was the exact moment I fell in love with wanting to be an Olympic skier.

And for the next 18 years I dedicated almost every waking moment to making that dream come true!

As humans, we get caught up in life, it’s “busy”ness, our struggles, our failures, other people’s expectations, our own expectations, priorities and to-do lists. Somewhere along the way, we forget why or even when we first fell in love with our dream or with our purpose.

I remember retiring from elite level competition in 2010. I had just won my 2nd Olympic medal in the Vancouver Olympics and crashed in my very last World Cup competition, requiring another knee surgery. I was extremely grateful to have won another Olympic medal, but I had nothing left to give. I was absolutely tapped out - mentally, emotionally and physically.

I told everyone I was not going to put on a pair of skis for the next two years. It had stopped being fun for me - I was tired of physically working so hard, I was tired of keeping up with my own expectations, I was tired of giving everything I had every moment of every day. I had simply lost “my love” for skiing and needed a long break.

I’m not exactly sure why Rossignol (a sponsor I am still with today) wanted me to represent their brand as I made it very clear I needed a break and didn’t want to ski. But they persisted and part of our deal was they would gift me a season pass to Snowbird, you know, just in case I got the itch to get out and ski. Coincidentally, this was around the same time Instagram was taking off. 2011 was an epic powder year in the Wasatch and I kept seeing all of my friends with powder flying over their heads, big smiles on their faces, and Instagram captions like “Best powder I’ve ever skied” and “No friends on a powder day!”. If you know me, you know that I have severe FOMO (fear of missing out), so I grabbed my powder skis and headed up to Snowbird.

I remember being packed in the tram and the energy was electric. People were talking about what they just skied and what line they were going to ski next. The stoke was high and the smiles were BIG!! I got off the tram, got my skis on as fast as humanly possible, and headed straight for my favorite spot - the Cirque. I hadn’t skied a run with that deep of powder in a long time. I raced to the bottom and did about 6 more tram laps until my legs couldn’t turn any more.

It was one of the best days I’ve ever had on skis. I skied for ME and only ME. I felt the powder flying over my head, the wind in my hair, the same feeling as I felt flying down Hot Wheels Gulley with Wendy. What I realized as I was taking my boots off and putting my skis back in my car was that on this journey to becoming an Olympic skier, I had forgotten what I loved about skiing, what made my heart soar, what made my cheeks hurt from smiling, what filled my soul with happiness. I LOVED skiing with every fiber in my body, I just had to find my way back to that love.

I am certain this happens to all of us at one point or another. We get so far down the path of life and chasing our goals and dreams that we forget where we were originally going and most importantly, to have fun along the way.

My challenge for you today is………

to remember something that you really truly love and see where that love has gone. Is it still very much with you? Have you abandoned it? Has life pulled you in a different direction? Have someone else’s expectations altered what you originally wanted for yourself? Do you feel trapped in an endless cycle you can’t really identify? What will it take to get back to your love?

To get your process going here are three questions you can answer that might lead the way:

1) What are my 3 favorite memories? Why?

2) Am I where I thought I would be in life right now? Why or why not?

3) Do I finish most days with a feeling of fulfillment? Why?

I'd love to hear from you about what your love is and how you came to realize that love!!