Falling & Bleeding

Lessons from failure

I’ve been falling, bleeding and occasionally breaking bones for most of my life. I’m not masochistic, at least not by the traditional definition.

adjective: masochistic
1. deriving sexual gratification from one’s own pain or humiliation
1.1. (in general use) enjoying an activity that appears to be painful or tedious
- from Oxford dictionary

That second (1.1) definition makes sense. I’m a skateboarder. I started at 13 years old and it’s been part of my life for many years. Up until skateboarding, I never broke a bone and I’ve never broken bones doing anything else. I have fallen down a lot.

As a skateboarder, you find yourself face to face with the the ground often (see the chart of falls per year above). It’s part of the learning process. You have to be willing to fall, get up and try again, fall and continue to try. It’s painful, demoralizing but when everything goes right it feels really good. More often, it does not go to plan.