17 commandments from big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton
He faces fear for a living surfing big waves across the world, but Outside Magazine’s new interview with Laird Hamilton features 17 really actionable pieces of advice for the average athlete—or complete couch potato. While we LOVE all the new common-sense commandments from pro surfer and encourage you to click here to read the full list, here are our five faves:
- I base everything on how I feel. … your body is the best instrument for reading how things affect you.
- Above everything, sleep. I’m an eight-to-ten-hour guy. Not that I can’t operate with less, but for my overall well-being, I gotta have at least eight.
- Fear is an unbelievable motivator, but it also makes people freeze in their tracks. Once you start to understand it, fear becomes something you can tap into. Fear comes from the understanding that you can die. It usually makes me make really good decisions and gives me power.
- We are each our own greatest inhibitor. People don’t want to do new things if they think they’re going to be bad at them or people are going to laugh at them. You have to be willing to subject yourself to failure, to be bad, to fall on your head and do it again, and try stuff that you’ve never done in order to be the best you can be.
- Schedule training in the morning so that normal daily chaos—long meetings, family demands, traffic—won’t end your workout before it begins. Plus, you’ll jump-start your metabolism, meaning you’ll burn more calories (even while sitting behind a desk), feel better all day, and work more efficiently.
Image: @LairdLife