Crazy Ways Extreme Sports can Improve Your Life

How they shape you into someone who is capable of greatness

Ever since six years old I was intrigued by action sports. For months I would play the same skateboarding game on my games console for hours on end. I loved extreme sports. It looked cool, dangerous, fun, and exciting.

After persistent begging, my parents caved in and bought me a skateboard. I wanted to be like the guys I saw on the big screen, jumping down stair sets and tackling gigantic handrails.

So six year old me tried to accomplish that and sure enough, after plenty of dedication, I became skilled at the sport. In fact, there was a time when I was more dedicated to skateboarding than anything else, and sometimes got scolded for it.

Repeatedly I was told that there is no future for me in skateboarding and that it’s a waste of time and a useless skill to learn.

“So what, you can do skateboarding tricks. Big deal. When is that ever going to be useful in life?” is something I often heard from family and friends.

Despite what anyone else thinks, I strongly believe that elite action sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding, and riding a BMX can be extremely beneficial for anyone who chooses to commit themselves to them.

Here are a few things I have learned during my time practicing elite action sports.

You know what it is like to do something which is difficult

Don’t get it twisted. Elite action sports are extremely difficult to become skilled at. It takes years of failing and falling over to learn these stunts, and not everyone has what it takes to persevere until they reach success.

But for those rarities who do get to a high level, consider what that tells you about them as a person.

• It shows they have heart
• They are persistent and determined
• They have a high level of resilience
• They never give up
• They know what it’s like to fail for days, months or even years at a time, yet come back and eventually emerge victoriously.

Not a bad mentality for modern life, right?

Although learning a particular stunt is not something that is useful beyond showing off your mastery over a particular sport, the mentality you develop while learning these stunts can be carried over to all walks of life.

Think about it. In my earlier years as an avid skateboarder, I flirted with death. I did tricks down big stair sets, often breaking the law by skating where I’m not supposed to, all for landing one stunt that would mean everything to me.

At times I would launch my body down the same big set of stairs for 3 or more hours. My body would be aching all over, and so much could go wrong. I would be putting myself at serious risk, just asking for an injury.

But I continued to struggle and became very, very familiar with struggle.

Life, in all aspects, is a struggle. So when you become familiar with and embrace the struggle, you have the ability to power through whatever is holding you back in life.

Elite action sports have the ability to strengthen your mentality, equipping you to handle anything life throws at you. They get you familiar with going through a struggle, and triumphing in the face of it.

When you triumph in the face of struggle enough times, you develop supreme confidence to get anything you want out of life. The difficulty of any goal will never phase you again.

Develop a strong mentality that you can’t disconnect from

For some people, partaking in these extreme sports is a huge part of their life. I myself have been interested in skateboarding since six years old. The fact of the matter is, your passions shape you over the years.

So the lessons that skateboarding has taught me, have been thoroughly ingrained in my mind. I cannot count the number of battles I have faced and succeeded in overcoming them. The truth is, I have been through far too many to count.

You can’t disconnect from that kind of experience. It stays with you for life. So the valuable lessons of persistence, dedication, and determination are principles I live my life by automatically, no matter what I decide to do.

Modern-day stressors become far less stressful

There are so many things people freak out over that don’t affect me in the same way. When I attended college, I recall my classmates feeling high anxiety, almost all the time. Especially during the exam period.

But I didn’t share their feelings. In fact, I found their distress amusing.

“You think exams are stressful? Imagine risking your physical health by doing a highly dangerous stunt. That’s truly scary.”

Is something I often thought.

Because I have experienced the overwhelming fear of what could so easily go wrong attempting a crazy stunt, the fear of failing an exam or not getting a job is almost laughably insignificant. I have gone out of my way to experience fear on a much, much higher level than what is caused by modern-day stressors.

So what does this mean for me? I have a more relaxing life than your average person and I genuinely perform much better during my mundane day to day activities.

When my college examinations were due to commence, I outperformed many people. Why? Because I am very much immune to worrying over something so petty as an exam and as a result, I was able to do really good by just sitting there calmly.

What was the secret to my success? Not late nights of revision. Skateboarding. An elite action sport.

Your perspective on difficulty changes

As I have said before: Elite action sports are hard. Probably much more difficult than most other things on this planet.

So what does that mean for the undertakers of action sports?

It means that they are well prepared, and have the ability to learn other skills outside of their sport. Since action sports are so complex, those who do them have minds that are just wired for achieving greatness in all walks of life.

It doesn’t matter what they choose to do outside of their sport, they will get good at whatever they choose.

I know a twenty-year-old skateboarder who has more wealth than many people could ever hope to attain in their lifetime. He has a business that is thriving and growing by the day.

I talked to him about his early success one day and he said “Skateboarding tricks are much harder than making money, believe me. It’s just that the learning curve is less exhilarating.”

And I can agree with my friend's words of wisdom. Most things in life are easier than accomplishing impressive stunts, so those who can do these stunts have a mindset that is able to tackle and overcome less difficult challenges with ease.

Conclusion

Engaging in elite action sports is a sure-fire way of building a state of mind that will exponentially increase your chances of success in the modern world.

Action sports are not just an unproductive hobby or source of amusement. They shape you into a human being who is capable of great things, both during the practice of your chosen action sport and outside of it.