Surfing is a big part of our daily lives, and suring those times when we do get a bit far away from the things that truly matter … and surfing often calls us back … we need to pause for a bit and re-evaluate the things that really should hold our focus.

In the spirit of that thought, as we sit in our offices and look longingly at the surf rolling through the distant beach, here are the Top 10 things that YOU NEED TO DO RIGHT NOW:

1. Stop taking so much notice of how you feel. How you feel is how you feel. It’ll pass soon. What you’re thinking is what you’re thinking. It’ll go too. Tell yourself that whatever you feel, you feel; whatever you think, you think. Since you can’t stop yourself thinking, or prevent emotions from arising in your mind, it makes no sense to be proud or ashamed of either. You didn’t cause them. Only your actions are directly under your control. They’re the only proper cause of pleasure or shame. SURFER APPLICATION: Go with your instinct and rely on the skills you have. Sure, that wave might be bigger and gnarlier than anything you’ve ridden before but stop focusing on the fear and paddle like you own the wave!
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2. Let go of worrying. It often makes things worse. The more you think about something bad, the more likely it is to happen. When you’re hair-trigger primed to notice the first sign of trouble, you’ll surely find something close enough to convince yourself it’s come. SURFER APPLICATION: Am I good enough? Can I make this drop? Are people watching me? WHO CARES MATE! Just throw yourself over the edge and watch good things happen to ya!
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3. Ease up on the internal life commentary. If you want to be happy, stop telling yourself you’re miserable. People are always telling themselves how they feel, what they’re thinking, what others feel about them, what this or that event really means. Most of it’s imagination. The rest is equal parts lies and misunderstandings. You have only the most limited understanding of what others feel about you. Usually they’re no better informed on the subject; and they care about it far less than you do. You have no way of knowing what this or that event really means. Whatever you tell yourself will be make-believe. SURFER APPLICATION: Nuff said … just say you’re good enough, this is my wave, and I am going to make this drop! Period!
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4. Take no notice of your inner critic. Judging yourself is pointless. Judging others is half-witted. Whatever you achieve, someone else will always do better. However bad you are, others are worse. Since you can tell neither what’s best nor what’s worst, how can you place yourself correctly between them? Judging others is foolish since you cannot know all the facts, cannot create a reliable or objective scale, have no means of knowing whether your criteria match anyone else’s, and cannot have more than a limited and extremely partial view of the other person. Who cares about your opinion anyway? SURFER APPLICATION: There is no other surfer out there besides you! They are all concentrating on catching their own stoke, so the last thing anyone worries about is another surfer’s style and skill … so quit belly aching and go for it!
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5. Give up on feeling guilty. Guilt changes nothing. It may make you feel you’re accepting responsibility, but it can’t produce anything new in your life. If you feel guilty about something you’ve done, either do something to put it right or accept you screwed up and try not to do so again. Then let it go. If you’re feeling guilty about what someone else did, see a psychiatrist. That’s insane. SURFER APPLICATION: Guilt – whether it be work or personally driven – belongs on shore, mate! Make sure you leave it all in the boot of your car or on the beach when you paddle out. Surfers surf, and that’s all you need to bring out to the line up.
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6. Stop being concerned what the rest of the world says about you. Nasty people can’t make you mad. Nice people can’t make you happy. Events or people are simply events or people. They can’t make you anything. You have to do that for yourself. Whatever emotions arise in you as a result of external events, they’re powerless until you pick them up and decide to act on them. Besides, most people are far too busy thinking about themselves (and worry what you are are thinking and saying about them) to be concerned about you. SURFER APPLICATION: It has been said already … no one cares if you fall, if you wipe out, as long as you are trying hard … 100%! You hoot and holler when a surfer makes a great drop and you feel for them when they fail … so understand that no one is judging you except you!
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7. Stop keeping score. Numbers are just numbers. They don’t have mystical powers. Because something is expressed as a number, a ratio or any other numerical pattern doesn’t mean it’s true. Plenty of lovingly calculated business indicators are irrelevant, gibberish, nonsensical, or just plain wrong. If you don’t understand it, or it’s telling you something bizarre, ignore it. There’s nothing scientific about relying on false data. Nor anything useful about charting your life by numbers that were silly in the first place. SURFER APPLICATION: Ya, so that bloke caught one and you caught zip, so what. Just make sure you are out there having fun … the rest follows easily once you stop taking so much notice of who has what!
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8. Don’t be concerned that your life and career aren’t working out the way you planned. The closer you stick to any plan, the quicker you’ll go wrong. The world changes constantly. However carefully you analyzed the situation when you made the plan, if it’s more than a few days old, things will already be different. After a month, they’ll be very different. After a year, virtually nothing will be the same as it was when you started. Planning is only useful as a discipline to force people to think carefully about what they know and what they don’t. Once you start, throw the plan away and keep your eyes on reality. SURFER APPLICATION: Ya, so you’re not Kelly Slater or Rob Machado. Besides those blokes, who is??? You’re only goal is to be better than you were before, and that you try harder than you did last time out.
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9. Don’t let others use you to avoid being responsible for their own decisions. To hold yourself responsible for someone else’s success and happiness demeans them and proves you’ve lost the plot. It’s their life. They have to live it. You can’t do it for them; nor can you stop them from messing it up if they’re determined to do so. The job of a supervisor is to help and supervise. Only control-freaks and some others with a less serious mental disability fail to understand this. SURFER APPLICATION: This is a big one so listen up … If some bloke chooses to be a wanker out in the water, so be it. He can claim all the waves labelled “wanker” and go from there. He just wants others to be as miserable as him so don’t try to please him by letting him get in ‘yer noggin!
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10. Don’t worry about about your personality. You don’t really have one. Personality, like ego, is a concept invented by your mind. It doesn’t exist in the real world. Personality is a word for the general impression that you give through your words and actions. If your personality isn’t likeable today, don’t worry. You can always change it, so long as you allow yourself to do so. What fixes someone’s personality in one place is a determined effort on their part-usually through continually telling themselves they’re this or that kind of person and acting on what they say. SURFER APPLICATION: If you don’t like the way you are, make yourself different. You’re the only person who’s standing in your way … shortboard, longboard, goofy, regular stance … if you want to be different and want to see change, just do it and stop whining about how others are stopping you from doing it … only you are stopping yourself!

Like the man said, enough said … go and be the change, and surf like you are meant to be out there!