I didn’t want to do it.  In fact, I feigned a toothache, a heat rash, and a stubbed toe to avoid joining JD on a paddle board adventure in the Pacific ocean.  It’s not that I don’t like doing adventurous things, but I simply attract the worst luck.  Case in the point: the last (and only) time I paddle boarded, I did so alongside poop.  (I can’t even make this up.)

But, like most things in life, JD convinced me to get on a board and make new memories.

Fifteen minutes into our adventure and I still hadn’t stood on the board.  Instead, I sat on my knees and pretended to practice yoga.  Nama-stay-right-here-away-from-sharks pose.  JD sidled up next to my board and asked me to stand up.  At least try.  DUDE CAN’T YOU SEE I’M MEDITATING HERE?!  He paddled off and said over his shoulder, “Life isn’t about always being in control, Jasmine, sometimes you have to fall in order to understand how to stand strong!”

And, boom, just like that I realized he wasn’t talking about paddle boarding.  My husband was talking about life.

So I stood up.  For 30 seconds before falling in.  I bobbed up from the water laughing so hard my voice sounded like it ricocheted from the Maui mountains.  I fell and JD cheered me on from a distance when I stood back up.  After each fall, I stood up, each time longer than the last.  At the end of our session, I paddled to the shore standing on both feet with a huge smile.

Success—in paddle boarding and life—is simply the ability to stand after each fall, learn from mistakes, and willing yourself to get better.