#100

Coming out of lock down with the business on the brink, survival was very much the target, just still being in business for 2021 would be a success, but I did not want only that to be the benchmark on whether 2020 was in the end a success.. Building a treehouse for the kids was just as important, as well as watching back-to-back Harry Potter movies with my eldest, but I wanted to measure something that I had never measured before and that was my lifelong love, surfing.

The pioneer of snowboarding, James Burton, measured success on whether he had 100 days snowboarding that year or not. And I loved that idea of measuring something that you love to do. When you run a business, you can very much get tied up in cash flows, profit margins and planning.

All very important, but it seemed to me with Covid-19 changing the landscape daily, business plans were redundant just as you finished writing them, cash flows became outdated just as you finished the last excel formula. I love change and when you run a business it is part of life but when a global pandemic comes along the whole landscape changes and changes daily and is completely out of your control. I decided that all I can do is put my head down, work hard every day and have a surf.

As we look back 2020, time was given back to most of us and when you have time you start questioning everything, from your relationships to your work to even how you spend your time. My leisure time was surfing, always has been since I was 15 years old. So I decided that I wanted #100 surfs, if I hit #100 surfs in 2020 then that would be a success.

I have never counted surfs before, I have always tried to get in when it was good but if it was bad, I would work. When you run your own business there is always stuff to do. I knew I had clocked roughly 15-ish surfs before lock-down so coming out in June meant that I was halfway through the year and had to knuckle down to reach 100, that would be a tall order especially in Welsh waves, that is basically 3.5 sessions a week.

When you run your own business there is always a 1000 things you “could” be doing and when you’re standing on the sand dune looking at head high onshore messy waves then I would usually always do work on my business. But not this year, this year I had to hit #100, so I would just go out and surf, and not just once a day, I would go out twice a day in onshore messy waves. One day I even did a triple session in onshore messy waves. Everyone thought I had gone mad. I do not think I have ever had a double session in onshore messy waves in my life but now I was 41 years old and I was loving it. But this is the interesting thing, when you started counting something it changes your focus, it changes your mindset.

The adrenalin from busy 15-hour days at work and waking up to go on 5am morning surfs carried me through the chaos of the summer and as autumn hit, I found I had #85 surfs under my belt, and I felt amazing. The surfing became the focus, the business side of things was head down do work, what will be will be.

I am a full believer that if you put in the hard work, good things happen, whether that is surfing, relationships or business. You need to put the hours in, end of.

The funny thing is as I hit #100 surfs in October, I also found out that I had hit #100 continuous working days, I was only counting the surfs. I have put in the hours, so I was feeling positive about both.

By December I had hit #151 surfs in 2020.

In essence, no matter how bad or rough the sea looks it only takes one good wave to make the surf worthwhile, if you always go out you will find gold, you will find a wave. And that’s the same for all aspects of life, stay positive, keep going and the rest kind of sorts itself out. Well that’s my philosophy anyway.

P.s. what would be your #100 for The next 12 months?