Most people try to fix overwhelm by pushing harder. But on the river and in life, the real power is in the pause. Stopping long enough to reset your hands, your posture, your mindset, and your direction creates the clarity force never will. When you pause, you reorient — and your true line becomes obvious.

Failure isn’t the opposite of success — it’s the put-in. Most of us try to earn our way into growth by avoiding mistakes, and then wonder why our progress stalls. Years ago, during a rowing clinic that demanded precision over strength, I blew the simplest move on the river and felt myself crumble inside. But my instructor just nodded and said, “Good. Now do it again.” No judgment. No story. No shame. That moment cracked something open in me: failure wasn’t a verdict. It was information. A cue to keep going.

When you stop treating mistakes as proof that you’re not enough, and instead treat them as part of the learning curve, everything shifts. You start showing up with curiosity instead of fear. You expand instead of contract. You grow faster — and more honestly — than you ever will by trying to be perfect.

If you’re ready to pursue your next level with permission to fail, this is the work we do inside coaching.

Have you ever noticed how a goal you once cared about can quietly drift out of reach? One moment you’re committed, energized, certain this is your season — and then daily life shifts the angle and the line disappears. This New Year reflection explores why goals slip, how to re-scout with clarity, and what it takes to choose a cleaner, truer path forward.

You’re allowed to put down the backpack someone else packed for you. The old beliefs. The inherited fears. The expectations you never agreed to carry. Most of the stories that disempower us aren’t even ours — they’re narratives we absorbed before we knew we were allowed to choose differently. You get to rewrite your meaning. You get to choose a story that supports your growth instead of repeating your past.

Most people think courage is about saying yes — sending the line, taking the leap, pushing through. But sometimes the bravest move you can make is saying no without apology or FOMO. Standing at the base of a gorgeous Sawatch couloir, I realized I didn’t want to force something that wasn’t aligned. So I turned around. No drama. No regret. Just a clean, grounded no. Because a courageous life isn’t built only on your yeses. It’s shaped just as powerfully by your nos.

We don’t build confidence by pretending we’re fearless; we build it by showing up honestly, even when we feel messy or unsure. It’s an invitation to stop waiting for perfect conditions and begin moving toward your goals with the body and the nervous system you have today.

Boaters Anonymous is a simple, emotional, and deeply human practice I use on river trips to help paddlers stop pretending they’re fine and start naming what’s real. When fear is spoken out loud instead of carried alone, bodies settle, clarity returns, and courage has room to land. This is how we turn big water into something workable — together.

Your nervous system speaks before your mind does. Learn how to calm fear, ground your body, and take the next right step—on the river, at the trailhead, or in the middle of everyday life.