Did Heli Skiing Inspire New Year's Resolutions or Realisations or Both?
As 2011 unfolded for me, almost 18hrs after it did for my friends and family I’d just left behind in Australia, I was fortunate to be in one of my favourite places on earth, doing my favourite past time. I was in interior British Columbia, tucked away in a little known remote heliski lodge called Snowwater, embarking on a 4 day heliski tour with my Total Heliski company clientele.
Partying with Californians at New Year's
We partied hard on NYE, with the other arriving guests from California, Denver, NYC and around Canada watching home-made fireworks and enjoying complimentary shots delivered by the flamboyant heli lodge owner (Patric) and his intentionally handsome bartender (Alex) in ice-glasses served on their ice bar. This was some welcome I thought.
Then as New Years day dawned and the whole world nursed their hangover, we chose to ignore ours, arising instead to a blue-bird powderday, with our sexy (yes, I do believe you can label an inanimate object such as a heli as sexy) red heli at the ready for lift off, and indulge every one of our senses.
As we flew out to our first heli run- (my first of the year), with the sun low in the wintery sky, shining warm in my eyes, I took in the white, wondrous beauty of the Selkirk wilderness afore me whilst contemplating the events of the past year.
I realized that I had passed some major milestones with my business (Total Heliski), and formed some amazing relationships, but at the same time suffered some costly personal losses. I had built a major website, successfully held a world first event, (the world’s first heliski show), built some important business relationships, met some amazingly inspiring athletes and dedicated employees, found an amazing new home, and held down my day job.
However, I had also lost a couple of friendships that were dear to me, had been deceived in situations I thought not possible, I had put on weight, and lost fitness from lack of ‘time’, and suffered some pretty extreme stress when I couldn’t accept limits on my bandwidth. I also learnt some important things like what drives me isn’t what I thought it was, that finally I had found some way to express my creativity, that I needed to improve my dealing with media ‘noise’, and that at times you have to be plain tough, even when you don’t want to be in order to stay standing upright.
So, what do these realisations mean for 2011 I wondered?
Well, to start with, I plan to dramatically increase my fitness (and lose those pounds), to better manage my expectations around what I can and should achieve with my work and business, to cherish and invest in the people who support me, and divest those who don’t, to appreciate everything I have no matter how small, every day; and to map out my future, something I’d been avoiding for quite a while of late.
And then we landed and the action began. (Yes, helis land for heli skiing!)
We partied hard on NYE, with the other arriving guests from California, Denver, NYC and around Canada watching home-made fireworks and enjoying complimentary shots delivered by the flamboyant heli lodge owner (Patric) and his intentionally handsome bartender (Alex) in ice-glasses served on their ice bar. This was some welcome I thought.
Then as New Years day dawned and the whole world nursed their hangover, we chose to ignore ours, arising instead to a blue-bird powderday, with our sexy (yes, I do believe you can label an inanimate object such as a heli as sexy) red heli at the ready for lift off, and indulge every one of our senses.
As we flew out to our first heli run- (my first of the year), with the sun low in the wintery sky, shining warm in my eyes, I took in the white, wondrous beauty of the Selkirk wilderness afore me whilst contemplating the events of the past year.
I realized that I had passed some major milestones with my business (Total Heliski), and formed some amazing relationships, but at the same time suffered some costly personal losses. I had built a major website, successfully held a world first event, (the world’s first heliski show), built some important business relationships, met some amazingly inspiring athletes and dedicated employees, found an amazing new home, and held down my day job.
However, I had also lost a couple of friendships that were dear to me, had been deceived in situations I thought not possible, I had put on weight, and lost fitness from lack of ‘time’, and suffered some pretty extreme stress when I couldn’t accept limits on my bandwidth. I also learnt some important things like what drives me isn’t what I thought it was, that finally I had found some way to express my creativity, that I needed to improve my dealing with media ‘noise’, and that at times you have to be plain tough, even when you don’t want to be in order to stay standing upright.
So, what do these realisations mean for 2011 I wondered?
Well, to start with, I plan to dramatically increase my fitness (and lose those pounds), to better manage my expectations around what I can and should achieve with my work and business, to cherish and invest in the people who support me, and divest those who don’t, to appreciate everything I have no matter how small, every day; and to map out my future, something I’d been avoiding for quite a while of late.
And then we landed and the action began. (Yes, helis land for heli skiing!)