A letter from the ski slopes 🎿
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Hey Reader, I'm writing this from Trysil in Norway, where we've brought the kids for spring break an we are all learning to ski! What started as a family holiday has turned into something I didn't expect, a pretty intense lesson in what it actually takes to keep going when everything in you wants to stop. For the past four days I've been learning to ski. Six hours a day - 1.5 hours of lessons, then another 4 hours just practising. Below zero temperatures ("feels like -9 to -11"). Thick fog. Wind and snow. We've been going to sleep at 8pm, absolutely knackered. I've fallen more times than I can count. I may have cried once or twice. And I'd do it all again. Because today, on day four, in the very last hour, the sun came out. And so did something else. Joy. Real, earned, I-did-this joy. I could ski. Not perfectly. But I could feel it - the shift from survival mode to actual skill. And that feeling made every single fall worth it. And it made me think about entrepreneurship, here's how --> The goal is the goal. It doesn't matter what the person next to you is doing. It doesn't matter that it's foggy or freezing or that you've pulled a muscle you didn't know you had. I watched people fly past me for four days. Faster, more confident, obviously not beginners. I had two choices: feel terrible about it, or focus on whether I was better than I was yesterday. On day four, I was. That's the only comparison worth making. The only metric that counts is: am I still in the game? When are working on our business, we have to have that kind of tunnel vision. Progress isn't linear, it compounds. Days one and two on the ski slopes were genuinely rough for me. Day three, marginally better. Day four, something clicked. Suddenly the hours of pain and practice had added up to something I couldn't even see happening. I feel like business is exactly like this. The work you do in the quiet, grinding, no-one-is-watching months is the foundation. It just doesn't feel like it at the time. Context matters, but it can't stop you. But I'm here, and my one job this week is to learn to ski. Sometimes focus isn't ignoring what's hard. It's choosing what you give your energy to, right now, in this moment. That's a skill too. The weather forecast is promising for the next two days we are here. And now, finally, I can actually ski. The hard bit is done. The enjoyable bit is just beginning. That's how it goes - in skiing and in business - just a different time frame. You have to put the work in before the fun feels like fun. Then one day, you realise you've earned the right to enjoy it. This has been a stark reminder that we cannot hear enough times: The only failure is stopping - everything else is data. So if you are still reading, here is my 2 cents for the day: Pick one thing that feels foggy in your business right now. Commit to showing up for it every day this week - not perfectly, just consistently. And remind yourself of what you are building. What you are laying the foundations for. -- Before you go --> A prompt to try with AI this week: If you're in the grinding, foggy, nothing-is-clicking phase of your business, this one's for you. Paste it into ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude when you need a reset. The prompt: I'm a [your role, e.g. solopreneur, coach, consultant] who helps [your audience] to [what you do]. Right now I feel [describe how you're feeling - overwhelmed, behind, stuck, scattered]. I want you to act as a grounding business coach. Remind me of my one core goal for this season, help me identify the 3 most important actions I should focus on this week, and ask me what I'm letting distract me that I need to let go of. Be direct, warm, and don't let me off the hook. That's it for today - longer than usual I know! Love, Abha Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you: 1. Free AI Masterclass — learn to build your AI content team in 60 minutes 2. VIP Day — we build your entire AI content system together, in a day. Book a call to see if I can support you. 3. Want to know what the fuss is about Claude? I'm doing a free walk through of it very soon, date TBC, register here to be notified. |