"Doing nothing is more important than just doing."
By SHAUN TOMSONWaiting for a wave(photo credit: Courtesy)Since retiring from the world of professional surfing, I have explored the link between the basic principles of surfing – commitment, courage, humility, respect, balance and self-awareness – and how these principles relate to leadership. I believe leadership is an ability to influence and inspire others to find their purpose to achieve a shared goal and sometimes the best way to nurture and grow this ability is by doing absolutely nothing…Surfers spend most of their time during an average two-hour surf session doing nothing, waiting for a wave rather than surfing. A well-known ad from Instinct, an apparel company I founded many years ago, read, “Waiting for waves is okay. Some people spend their lives waiting for nothing.” A ride on a surfboard is generally brief, no more than 20 seconds at your average surf break, a hundred-yard traverse from takeoff to kick out, and then a paddle-back to repeat the process.A surfer might catch 10-20 waves in a session so most of the time we sit astride our boards, partially submerged on a fiberglass covered sculpture of polyurethane foam that is generally between 6 and 9 feet long (depending on the size of wave – the larger the wave, the longer the board), almost 20 inches wide and weighing between six and 12 pounds. Surfing has exploded in popularity so the days of being alone in the surf with one’s thoughts are long gone. I’ll wait for my wave with a group of other surfers, all looking expectantly out towards the horizon for that next set, a grouping of waves formed by the agitation of wind across water, created by a storm hundreds or even thousands of miles away.‘Doing nothing is more important than just doing’ (photo credit: COURTESY)The sets are seldom constant, so there are long moments when no waves are ridden, when we do nothing. Waves are separated by periods, the time between swells, related to the wind speed that generated the swells, and the length of time the wind blew across the water. When the surf is really big, waves will be separated into 17 second periods – a set of waves will make their way towards land at about thirty miles per hour and start to slow as the waves feel the resistance from sea floor as it shallows.Surfers don’t wait in an ordered line like for a movie, but within a fluid grouping, each surfer changing position to be in the best spot to catch the best wave, that is expected to be coming, just over the horizon. Some surfers sit far out, waiting specifically for the bigger waves, while others sit closer in to the shore, able to pick off more numerous yet smaller waves. A quick glance from shore and one just sees a grouping of people astride boards, bobbing in an undulating ocean. But there is a lot that is unseen – an entire world of doing nothing, patient waiting and thinking.While waiting for that next wave, in the cool water, my legs moving gently beneath me as I sit astride my board, balancing me on the undulations of the ocean, the push and pull of the tide, the currents from the wind and the incoming swell forcing energy through the ocean, pushing in and out or perpendicular to the coast, I connect with an unseen rhythm, the current of the universe, and it flows through me, balancing my internal and external thoughts – my immediate thoughts of the next wave and what I have to do to catch it, and my internal thoughts of how I might ride the wave, and what I will do on that next ride.I have always believed that no positive result or achievement happens randomly, success is a result firstly of introspection and visualization, and secondly of positively directed energy towards the result. This is the essence of the Surfer’s Code program that I propagate throughout organizations and schools across the world. Sit and think, and then write your future as a simple 12-line code, each line beginning with “I will…” Thought, commitment and then action.For some this process of thinking and waiting before writing implies one is doing nothing, but the exact opposite is true. Doing nothing is the essential condition of quietude and stillness necessary for the tiny spark of inspiration to flame up into a commitment to action.Doing nothing is more important than just doing.And doing nothing in nature is more important than simply doing nothing.And science backs it up.Researcher David Strayer, from the University of Utah Psychology Department states. “We are seeing changes in the brain and changes in the body that suggest we are physically and mentally more healthy when we are interacting with nature.”The South African-born Shaun Tomson is a professional surfer, former world champion, environmentalist, actor, author and businessman (photo credit: COURTESY)As a surfer I have spent tens of thousands of hours floating on the surface, under the curved blue dome of sky, thinking while gazing optimistically towards the horizon, looking for that which is unseen, trying to discern exactly where to catch the next wave, that band of energy, created from the friction between wind and water.I suppose all surfers are attuned to these invisible forces – in my homeland of South Africa I could taste the wind and discern subtle changes in barometric pressure – I could feel that surf was coming, confirmed by slight visible shifts in nature, by cloud patterns, temperature shift and dew fall. With this connectivity to nature comes a keen sense of self awareness, an innate sense of how one fits into the mosaic of the universe, an intuitive understanding of cause and effect, and effect and cause.By doing nothing I become more connected to the present.By doing nothing I become more connected to myself.By doing nothing I become healthier.By doing nothing I become happier.By doing nothing I become better.Connecting to nature in any way can teach us all volumes about ourselves, our lives and ultimately about our business endeavors. Connecting to nature helps us to be happier, reinvigorating our minds, souls and bodies with fresh air and gratitude for the open sky and God’s work. If we are quieter and more thoughtful and more engaged with nature, we will be better, and we will be better leaders.For me, connecting to nature while out in the surf forces me to slow down, stop, and wait, languidly drifting across the surface of water, thinking deeply on what is, and what is to come.The writer, a former world surfing champion and instructor, is a popular leadership keynote speaker who was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. He grew up in Durban, South Africa and currently lives in Santa Barbara, California. He can be contacted at shauntomson@yahoo.com
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