Making mistakes

I am not a naturally patient person. For me the most frustrating aspect of learning any new physical skill like surfing is the fact that I can't short-circuit the process by just assimilating raw knowledge and moving on. It takes a lot of practice, and almost all of that practice is going to consist of making mistakes. And I hate making mistakes. In fact, until my late twenties, I assiduously avoided doing things that might turn out to be mistakes, which in retrospect was a bigger mistake than almost anything else I could have done.

A large part of preparing myself mentally for this trip was accepting the fact that although quitting my job and surfing in the tropics for 3 months sounded great, it might turn out to be a mistake. That's OK.