I am a dreamer who wants to fulfill his dreams. Since I suffered the very severe traumatic brain injury 14 years ago, fulfilling anything hasn’t been easy for me. I have had to make countless sacrifices in order to accomplish anything, but because the accomplishments have been so dear to me, I wouldn’t really even call those sacrifices. All of them have been decisions, some harder than the other – some really hard.
Earlier I thought, that I would just have to fight back physically and it would be all good. Now I start to realize that after a certain point… it’s all mental.
Last week was a proper test of this. I knew how to do ski touring – yes. Glue the skins to the bottom of your skis and climb up the mountain – it’s as simple as that. I had a lot of faith for my skills, because that was what I had been training for for years. I had all what it took to get myself going.
The thing I couldn’t foresee, I couldn’t even dream about it seriously… was that I could do it for five days in a row! Back in the days, when I was skiing on my prime, I preferred having a day off after a few hard days. My skiing now is not really even comparable to my skiing back in the days, but I know that the climbing would have been tough for me back then too.
Back then I was only skiing, because I didn’t have to worry about anything. Now I have something that keeps me going. I have certain routines. Sticking to the new routines of mine modified my schedule on every ski day. I would wake up, stretch, do my breathwork, have a cold exposure, do some training and then, eat the breakfast after a shower.
I started my morning outside as it was a sunny day! <3
I have had a daily schedule somewhat like this for some years already and it really helps me to keep on doing my thing. Every time I have to start thinking about ”what to do?” there’s a slight chance for me to decide that this is enough, I’m going to stop here. When I stick to things I know how to do well without thinking about it, I dodge that option and keep on going.
That’s where we want to go. Photo: Jyri Paajamaa
The view from the top of Fugltind is magical. Photo: Jyri Paajamaa