Did you learn to ride a skateboard when you were a kid?
I did, but for some reason (ineptitude, and lack of practice, probably) I never really got any good at it…
Perhaps neither did this client of mine.
He runs a tech company. Just like everyone else these days.
Founder – Evangelist – Disruptor.
Skateboarder.
Like many of us out there he juggles work life and home life, with kids, mortgage, business, staff and all the rest. Clients needing help. Invoices to send, dinner to cook, and so on.
So if you’re a busy founder-about-town, whose life-seesaw is tipped firmly in favour of ‘work’, how do you get time out to think and reflect, relax and spend time with your family.
You ride a skateboard, it turns out. Or, in this particular example, you teach your young daughter to ride one.
By riding it yourself.
And, alas – falling off it.
Then shattering your collarbone…!
Well done Dad! Good work, so skilled.
At least he got to take some time out of the work, and relax, reflect…and mend. About three weeks it turned out.
How was his business? Fine, of course, probably ran a bit more smoothly without the boss-man there, ranting and raving.
The world keeps on going, even if you sit down for a minute.
So you know what? That humble skateboard is a bridge to the time out. You don’t have to fall off one or send yourself to hospital screaming.
It doesn’t even have to be a skateboard.
You just need to find one thing that you used to love doing as a kid – and do it again. No matter how silly that sounds.
If you can find that thing that makes you forget everything else, so you can just BE, in the moment, no distractions – then all the work, and problems, and issues, and frustrations melt away.
Surfing.
Lego building.
Model-making, painting, playing the guitar.
The list is as long as the queue of people who could use a good time out!
So think about it – what did you love doing as a kid?
Try doing it again.
Maybe today, but certainly tomorrow – it’s a Saturday after all.
You might just discover a bit of that zen that all kids have. The quiet time in between
‘AllThatOtherSillyStuff’ (A-TOSS for short.)
Take some time to stop giving A-TOSS.
Just think twice before you pick skateboarding.
