Chad Schapiro: Catch The Wave

I have picked up some valuable lessons--life lessons--from surfing. Not that I have ever surfed before, but I love the lessons. Here they are:

1. To surf you have to paddle out to deep enough water to catch a wave. LESSON - In life you will most likely NOT catch a wave of success by standing where you are. Get out of your comfortable area and get ready. Success is caught by working to get to a point where you can have a possibility to catch a wave of success.

2. When paddling out, waves will try to knock you back and off your board. To keep this from happening lay flat on your board, duck your head down, push the nose of the board down and dive into the wave with your board. LESSON - In life obstacles will be there to knock you down and back. You must dive into the obstacles... they can't be avoided.

3. It certainly helps to get advice from other surfers. LESSON - In life get a mentor who has achieved success and ask them how (Suggestion - when surfing don't use the word 'mentor'. It is not 'cool' and you will certainly be deemed the geek of the group).

4. You can't surf if you are tense... relax. LESSON - RELAX!!!

5. In order to stay on your board you must be balanced. LESSON - Make sure your life is balanced... work, play, health, mental and spiritual.

6. When you do finally catch a wave the tendency is to lean back but this will only result in a fall. Lean forward and you will keep your balance. LESSON - In life, often the natural reaction is to pull back or relax after success, but the only way to keep momentum is to lean forward and keep pressing on towards more success.

7. You are not going to catch a wave on your first try. It is hard... hard... hard for a beginner. LESSON - In life, don't give up.

Surfing looks fun and so is success - but both take work. The payoff in surfing is a 5-10 second wave to ride (that I have yet to experience) and in life it can be much more. So I am off to catch a wave, and here is wishing you a wave of success!