Perpendicular to the Wind
This morning, I decided to stop before heading back home. Every day, I feel like I’m rushing in order to get back and jump into work or to do whatever I need to do before being productive. However, I’m always fighting morning traffic after dropping off the kids. Last night, I decided that I’d had enough and that today, I’d wait a half hour close to my kids drop off before getting back on the road. Maybe that would be enough time for the traffic to pass.
One of the more memorable experiences during my time as a kid at summer camps was windsurfing. At first, it was very difficult to get the hang of it and the wind could easily push you off the board but after a few lessons, it was invigorating. The way you could grab onto the wind and use it too move at what seemed like breakneck speeds was so much fun.
But then there was the issue of getting to where you wanted to go.
One problem was what to do when where you wanted to go was where the wind was coming from. The secret was to never go directly against the wind. You first needed to windsurf perpendicular to the wind and then use that speed to slowly move towards it. The result is that you could still manage, all be at not very easily, to get where you want to go.
The alternative was being whacked in the face with your sail.
While I haven’t windsurfed since summer camp, the lesson still serves me well. Today I gave it another try and it saves me a lot of frustration. It’s worth it to find other areas in life where going perpendicular to the flow can save much effort and frustration.
