Skiing in one of America’s snowiest towns

Happy T.O. day!

Welcome to Travel Onist featuring travel recommendations, personal growth stories, and inspiring content for your travels.

Experience in Salt Lake City, Utah

This past weekend I went out to Utah to ski with some friends from college.

I was excited for the trip; Utah was a bucket list ski destination and it had been about 3 years since the 5 of us were all together.

So much has changed since then. We’ve all grown in ways we likely never expected. And in many ways, we’ve grown apart.

But as we skied (or tumbled down) some of the best mountains the world has to offer, for the first time in a while, we all grew together. That’s an experience I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.

The ski terrain that surrounds Salt Lake City is nearly unmatched in terms of accessibility: there are 11 resorts within 1 hour of the airport.

Plus, many of these mountains get over 500 inches of “champagne powder” each year, named for its ultra-light density.

We skied Brighton, Snowbird, and Alta. All were amazing, but Alta was my favorite.

I didn’t know what skiing could be before this trip, and now I’m even more hooked.

Invest in life experiences with good people. I’ll see you again soon, Utah.

Weekly Write-up

I’ve always been an intense person, but that intensity is applied in different ways today than it was 5 or 10 years ago.

However, for the last 3 years or so, I’ve been under the impression that I’ve lost that edge.

Back before the holidays, I fell into a rut. Between changes at work and slow progress on my side projects, it felt like I just wasn’t moving forward.

My mind circled back to this idea of intensity. I started considering some other jobs; jobs that would offer more intensity, as a vehicle to further perfect my craft and find a more fulfilling way to spend my days.

Intensity was my answer: slog through the work, stay consistent, the night is darker before the dawn, yada yada.

I hadn’t had a period of intensity since I was swimming, and getting some of that back would probably be a good thing, so I thought.

You may find this feeling of a lack of intensity in my life silly or ironic considering I do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a hobby, but it was my honest feeling.

Anyway, I noticed that my “refocus on intensity” had some negative impacts…mainly impatience.

Anything that was not an immediate success, became a failure and a disappointment.

I felt like I needed to make a change ASAP and THAT would produce better work.

That’s not what happened.

Instead, I mostly ended up forcing output, feeling like my work wasn’t good enough, and growing discouraged all the while.

The pressure had closed off my thinking and caused me to flail a bit — looking for answers in a wide variety of places.

My recent trip to Argentina and the accompanying therapy session afterwards gave me the space to think, process, and reevaluate my view of myself and my life path.

I was able to see that the intensity that I was chasing, was someone else’s version of intensity, a version that does not align with my values.

When people think of intensity, the best examples are likely found in start-up culture or athletics. Most people think of hard work, laser focus, high pressure, high emotions, yelling, and looks of determination. These things are versions of intensity.

For most of my life, I thought those were the only versions of intensity.

But what I’ve learned, is that intensity is a force to be applied to what matters. For me, that is love, accountability, attention, authenticity, consistency, adventure, resilience, and more.

Intensity is important, but you can apply it as you see fit.

It does not have to function as society tells you, or in my case, as my upbringing taught me.

Intensity means ruthlessly protecting my energy, principles, and priorities.

Airplane Content

How To Do Great Work

Paul Graham is best known as the co-founder of Y Combinator, one of the most influential startup accelerators in the world. However, his perspective on how to do great work pulls from multiple verticals, from business to art. It is well worth the read for those looking to get the best out of themselves in any discipline.

AI Travel Art Piece of the Week

Cheers ‘til next week,

T.O.