Last fall, I purchased a wakeboard boat with a friend of mine. We acquired it at the end of the boating season so we never really had a chance to use it before it was pulled out of the lake and put into storage for the winter. However, this summer my family and I have used the boat a lot and have taken to both wakeboarding and surfing. Although these are extremely fun sports, they can be very frustrating until you master the basics…..the toughest thing to master is usually the most important; getting up out of the water on the board.

 

During the summer months, we do a lot of entertaining at the lake and because of this we have quite a few people that want to try both wake boarding and surfing but they have no prior experience. It has resulted in many amazing wipeouts, lots of laughs and sometimes a lot of frustration. Most of the time the biggest struggle for people that are trying to get up out of the water on a board is determining which foot to put forward or which is their "strong" foot. If you put the wrong foot forward then it feels uncomfortable and you usually fall quite quickly. However, if you ask the person which foot is their lead/strong foot they usually do not know.

 

Fortunately we have discovered a simple test to determine which foot is your strong foot. However, the test is not very comfortable and can only be administered when the person is not expecting it. I first witnessed this test early in the summer when we had a few younger couples on the boat. One of the ladies was standing on the swim platform of the boat trying to determine which foot to put forward on the board and her husband gave her a shove. She instantly adjusted her stance to keep from falling into the water and then she immediately asked her husband "what are you doing?" He said "Look at your feet, your right foot is forward so you should put your right foot as the lead on the board."

 

When pushed, a person typically drops one foot "automatically" backward and the foot that remains in the front is their lead or strong foot. This is the foot that goes on the front of the board. Once people understand this strength, they can then succeed quickly on the wake or surf board.

 

This is very similar to life. Sometimes it takes a "push" in life for us to snap out of our everyday ruts and discover that we are really good at something and should spend our time concentrating on this strength rather than trying to wakeboard through life with the wrong foot forward. These pushes come in a million different ways from tragedies to career changes to lost jobs to missed promotions, etc. When we get hit by these unexpected pushes we automatically adjust our stance to keep from going down and we put our "best foot forward". This means that we unconsciously adapt to ensure we are using our strengths.

 

Take a walk down memory lane and evaluate some of the past "pushes" that you have experienced and ask yourself these questions;

1) What strengths were you relying on during these times of duress? Can you articulate them clearly?

2) Are you currently using these areas of strength wherever you can?

3) What are you doing to develop these strengths even further?

4) What can you do to productively use these strengths even more?

 

Make sure that you make some adjustments in your life to take advantage of your strengths and leverage them wherever and whenever possible. Make sure that your are "wakeboarding" through life with your strong foot forward!