Weekday Skiing at the Peaks
No matter what you do, no matter how young or “wise” you are, it’s important to leave time in life to let loose and have fun. We live in a world where deadlines are tight, immediacy is the norm and we’re constantly sucked into a digital space. All of this gets overwhelming, but we press on, forgetting that we have interests outside of work. Guess what? Work can sometimes wait! Sometimes it can’t and you should probably pay attention to that so you can continue to fund your fun time, but when it can, you should go outside and do something for yourself.
I’m not here to advocate playing hooky, although there is a certain thrill about it! No, I’m saying use some lieu time, take a vacation day, do whatever you need to do to get out of the office. If it makes you feel better, call it a mental health day! There are so many things you can do, but for the sake of argument, let’s use snowboarding for an example.
There’s something amazing that comes with a random weekday skiing out on the hill. I don’t know if it’s adrenaline from shedding pent up stress or just the sheer joy of knowing that you could have the worst day on the hill and still know it’s better than the best day in your cubicle! Getting out there, carving some turns, catching up with an old buddy on the chairlift who has the “flu” (wink wink) does more for your productivity than you can imagine.
Try it, you’ll be glad you did. Answer your emails tomorrow and ride your snowboard today. Remember that there’s a kid inside you. Here’s a little video of my last “mental health” day where I tipped the scale of work-life balance a little further towards life. You’ll be happy to know that I got a lot done in the office today!
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Rob Whelan grew up in the Hockley Valley, about an hour north of Toronto and spent every spare minute of his youth skiing and snowboarding down 300 feet of vertical. “The ski/snowboard community is one of my favourite things in the world and I’ve dedicated myself and my work to keeping it strong. Now living in Kingston, Calabogie Peaks is my home hill. I make my living behind a camera, spending my summers photographing weddings and my winters photographing families that ski/snowboard together.” Life is good, #goplayoutside!
