How to master any skill you want !

It has been 20 years ago when I got attracted to paragliding. with some friends I attended a course to obtain my license to fly legally. after a couple of weeks flying from 400 meter high launch sites under safe conditions and land in the valley I got my license. how ever, I was still a lousy paraglider pilot … I launched into trees, I crashed into fences while landing and I always
shit my pants at launch, while flying and at landing. it was a miserable experience, unsafe and dangerous.

Meanwhile I grabbed a job opportunity in New York and after returning 2 years later in 1998, I wanted to do a so called ‚refresher‘. A weekend to get back used to flying … if you could call it like this.

By coincident I got introduced to a former world champion who realized that it needs more then a weekend for me to become a safe paraglider. He attracted me to an environment where you have the best conditions to train. perfect wind from 10am to 4pm, sand that is forgiving and a great infrastructure, environment and weather. Namibia.

In the next three years I spent more then 12 weeks on the Southern Hemisphere to master the skill of paragliding. being perfect on the ground means, your safe at launch and during landing. important skills to fly stress free. More than a thousand launches and landings can be accomplished during a week like this.

Since then I came back every 2-3 years to refresh my skills, obtain new ones, and rewire my senses and DNA.

Repetition is the mother of all skill.

After the first weeks paragliding became already part of my body and my nerve system. what was miserable before, I now enjoyed being in the Alps, being able to handle challenging conditions when the wind is not perfect or the air is a little turbulent. I have seen so many paragliders struggling but didn’t get tired in telling them what I experienced.

Since then I developed what is still the biggest and largest online presence for paragliders (www.paragliding365.com), I had so much joy in doing this sport and a complete new world opened up for me, so relaxed, walking up almost any mountain and flying down, I did my tandem license and the motor paragliding license, took passengers with me in a safe way, handled critical situations easily and I visited and flown many outstanding flying sites in the world. today I enjoy most to walk up a mountain, stay there for one night and fly down at sunrise and having breakfast with my family.

This year I am again so grateful and I feel so privileged to be under a handful of people in the world that have ever flown the highest dunes in namibia and in the world. an experience that cannot be covered in words, nor in pictures. it will just give you a glimpse, a small portion of what it really feels like to fly 200 meter higher than a 400 meter high dune, rising steep out of
a flat valley, while the sun is setting and putting the entire landscape into a magical atmosphere and a red see of solidified ocean waves appears.

So, what’s the pattern to master any skill, the pattern that I used by coincident, not because of a conscious decision but by accident. I got introduced to it by Tony Robbins 4 years ago at his ‚unleash the power within‚ event.

1. Modeling

   find the best trainer you can gethold of and that you can afford. not the one close to you, but the best! In my case it was a former world champion with many great characteristics at that time.

2. Total Immersion

   fully dive into the topic. do nothing then this, for days or even weeks, isolate from the world and fully immerse into the content and practice, like I did in namibia. this is far more intense and expedient than doing something for an hour per week.

3. Space Repetition

   come back from time to time, realign and refresh your skills, learn new ones, and rewire your body and again by immersing into the topic. I came back to namibia and some other areas to see my trainer to do exactly that.

With this pattern you are able to master any skill you want. whether it’s learning a new sport, playing an instrument, a specific profession or something for your job, a language, what ever it is. use this pattern and you will see that an entire new world will open up for you, like it did for me.

I used this concept many times since then, and where I didn’t … you can see it by the results smile emoticon.
And again something that I am really grateful for.

I love you, thank you.