Passion and Refocusing

My mom told me when I was much younger “either you do what you like or do what you are naturally good at.” I think that’s so true and wise even up till today after having 3 kids. We all need to be doing something that gives us enough drive to make us want to continue.

If you are feeling tired and fatigued, you are not alone. If you are feeling that all you are doing is just to make ends meet, you are not alone. If you are putting off the things you need to do in the next few years to achieve your dreams, you are not alone.

I know a few of the skaters featured in the above video “Grind & Air“. We used to skate together and its great to see some are still skating and kicking ass. To me, I think they made it. They kept with their passion and consistently improved their craft. I’m really proud of them.

In Singapore, there is no money in skating. We don’t have big skate brands from Singapore, skating is not main stream, its a sub-culture. So to keep at it and still have the drive, to me that’s true passion. You need to set aside time for it, you need to commit.

Of late I got caught up with lots of stuff, work, having Clara, kids education, twitter, facebook, etc. The next thing you know, so much time have slipped by and all I want to do is rest. Its a vicious cycle. I blame it partially in the fact that we are all so connected, we are all so online, we are all so distracted. Peter Bregman explained it best in his article Why I Returned My iPad. I agree with him, the problem is me, its not my iPad.

I’m sick of it, I’m sick of myself. So now, I’m gonna refocus, I’m gonna take away distractions, I’m gonna set aside time, I’m gonna commit. I’ll get back to do stuff that I like and stuff that I’m good at. I’ll refocus and get back on track with my passions.

A few more beautiful skate videos below for motivation and to remind us all not let go of our passions. Keep rollin… Keep your passions alive…

MADRID LONGBOARD from Juan Rayos on Vimeo.

skate – shot on red #1347 – 120 fps from Raphaël Aupy on Vimeo.

Experts to Heroes

Rodney Mullen. Amazing Skateborder, an Expert. I’m always fascinated in his style, innovation and technicality. There is such an excellent spirit and dedication when I see him skate all the time.

This series of videos about him thought me 2 things.

  1. Progress can be due to weird reasons like being tormented by ideas.
  2. When doing something complex, focus on just the key things.

Go check out more of his videos on Youtube.

He will always be my Hero.