Fall, get up, repeat!

I love skiing, snowboarding, and actually anything snow. My Dad, my Mom and later in life, a boyfriend taught me how to ski.

My Dad is kind of hardcore when it comes to teaching things. He took us up to the top and just sent us down. Ok, he gave some instruction, but not much. One day I had been off skiing with my sister Rachel. When my Dad saw us, he asked, "how many times did you fall today?" I had a huge smile wash over my face as I proudly exclaimed that I hadn't fallen! He grumbled squinted his eyes, sighed and said, "good but also not great; you see if you didn’t fall you didn’t try hard enough." I was stumped! I thought the goal was not to fall. He continued to tell me that in life you have to keep falling to get ahead.

Right now there are a lot of books on the market about failure and courage. I smile when I see them and think, hey Dad you should have written a book.

I've thought a lot about failure this year; moving, living between two cities, quitting my job and yet again venturing into the unknown. This has all pushed me into my zone of absolute discomfort again, and I feel I am blindly stumbling along.

I am 46 and still falling Dad! This lesson you taught me when I was about 10 has stayed with me.  Falling is a good thing! Just learn to pick yourself up, brush yourself off, analyze what made you fall and change it!

—Allison Ochs Social Worker M.S.W. , Coach, Expat, Mother of three, Wife

P.S. The picture is of my sister Rachel skiing on that very day.