Skateboarding is a mindset: Dedication

Three times a charm? You can double that in my case. And it’s not just with skateboarding.. As soon as I really want something to happen, the ride gets bumpy. I learned that it’s better to embrace that instead of losing my energy for it. Obstacles instruct, but they should never obstruct.

From my point of view, there is only one answer to setbacks and that is dedication. Why? It’s simple: You will not experience a setback if the thing that you are trying doesn’t mean anything to you, right? Have you ever felt angry or worried about something you couldn’t care less about? Setbacks are an essential part of the game. They are based on expectations and they will happen. The good thing is that a setback will only test you on how much you value something to happen. How do you pass the test? Determine your goal and embrace the process.

The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.

Goals

Being goal-oriented is an absolute must if you want to stay dedicated. Where else would you be dedicating yourself to if you don’t have a goal? Would you climb a mountain without a top? Play a game of skate with an infinite amount of letters? Probably not. It needs to be tangible, otherwise it doesn’t get the right traction.

Shooting this video footage for example, I can say that it was out of my comfort zone and I felt that. It took me around 20 tries, I broke my board, ripped my pants, lost some skin on my arms and I almost crushed Michael’s camera. It were my own friends who had to force me to stop and try it again another day. Why all the effort, you might think. The answer is easy: We practice what we preach. Skateboarding is a mindset and the beauty of the sport is that you will learn to do whatever it takes.

Think differently

When you have a goal, it is so much easier to stay dedicated. It gives you the possibility to step out of a situation and look at it from a different perspective. It makes you remember WHY you are doing it. Your WHY is always stronger than WHAT is happening at some moment. Remember that when you experience an obstacle or a setback. It will teach you that an obstacle is only a part of the process, and not the final stop. You’ll just have to think differently.

For us, the first weeks of Get Your Shit Together were nothing more than a bunch of aspirations and big dreams. Is that bad? No not at all. It’s the perfect foundation for an amazing story. We just had to make sure that we wouldn’t keep hanging in that phase. We all know how easy it is to forget a dream when we wake up the next day. The same is applicable in real life: Do something with it or you will lose the energy, the intensity, everything.

Get Your Shit Together really started rolling when we committed ourselves to a goal. We determined that we will gather 100 used skateboards and that we are going to South Africa to personally introduce the less fortunate kids with the beauty of skateboarding. This all within six months. From that point onward, we just couldn’t stop rolling.

A smooth ride

Where are we now? We are leaving within 2 months, we are shipping the skateboards in a couple of weeks and we have put together an amazing trip. We now have two continents supporting our project and it really gives us the feeling that we are creating some kind of connection in between them. All of this without obstacles? No, not at all! At this point, we are really behind on financial assets. We have 12K to go in order to get the trip ánd the documentary that we are going to shoot financed. For us, it’s a big obstacle but we can’t let it affect our goal. This is WHAT is going on right now, and it made us change priorities, with the result of me writing about it.

Who’s calling (for action)?

One thing we learned is that our most valuable asset is the amazing support that we got from our direct network. So please do share with us the joy of doing something for less fortunate people. You can be of irreplaceable value by offering financial support or donating your used hardware.  If this doesn’t work for you, do what we do and check within your direct network. A suggestion from my side: Check at your employer who the ambassador of corporate responsibility is (mostly HR or marketing). Get them HYPED about making this world a better place through sports. Suggest a collaboration so together we can work on getting our shit together!