The Best Things in Life Aren’t Free
I know that’s not how the saying goes, but hear me out…
I recently had the incredible opportunity to travel to Japan for a client engagement. Since I’ve never been before, I tacked on a few extra days to explore and play. In addition to a whirlwind one-day tour of Tokyo — an incredibly unique and culturally rich city — I ventured to Nagano to hit the ski slopes. Japan is renowned for its exceptional skiing, better known as JaPOW in some circles - a nod to its legendary snow.
Since I was traveling solo without any ski buddies, I did some research and booked a guided backcountry ski adventure. For those who don’t know, backcountry skiing means hiking (or “skinning”) into off-resort areas. It’s hard work, but the payoff is incredible: fresh, untouched powder, which is every skier’s dream.
When I arrived, my guides told me it was my lucky day - not only had the other groups canceled, giving me a private tour, but the guides also tailored the excursion to maximize fresh snow while minimizing skinning. It felt like I hit the lottery!
And let me tell you, JaPOW lived up to the hype. We had nearly four feet of fresh snow, and I had the terrain all to myself. We skied in waist-deep powder all day long, with snow flying in my face (“face shots!”) on almost every turn. I sent notes to all my ski buddies back home declaring it the best day of skiing I’d ever had…and I’ve had a lot of great ski days.
So, I signed up for the next day’s tour. The guides warned me: no private tour this time, and we’d have to do much more skinning. But the snow was too good to resist, they couldn’t talk me out of it.
On day two, I joined five other skiers. As expected, we did a lot more skinning—probably three to four more hours than the previous day. We climbed about 1,500 vertical feet and I had to share my freshies with others. But by the end of the day, I was so happy with the experience that I declared it even better than the first! A tough feat indeed.
On the flight home, I rewatched my GoPro footage. It played in reverse order—starting with the last video from day two and ending with the first from day one. Surprisingly, day one was clearly the “better” day, objectively. The snow was fresher and deeper, the runs were cleaner, and I certainly got more face shots.
So how could I have declared day two the winner? Sure, there’s the recency effect. But there was also something about having to work harder for my turns. The effort made the reward sweeter. I felt a greater sense of accomplishment (and exhaustion!) from the extra work, even though day one was “easier” and “better” by most standards.
It turns out the journey itself made quite the difference. The hard work made me appreciate the reward more deeply.
Isn’t life like that sometimes? The real saying is that the best things in life are free—but what’s given freely can be taken for granted. Real gratitude comes from the effort we put in, the sacrifices we make. It’s the work that makes the reward sweeter.
This experience was a great reminder for me. The greatest sense of joy and accomplishment often comes from putting in the hard work and earning the results. The sweetness of life comes not just from the destination, but from the journey.
Thanks for letting me share this with you. And on that note, I wish us all hard journeys, so we can truly appreciate the gold at the end of the rainbow. Oh, and for those seeking it—I also wish you fresh, waist-deep powder. It certainly put a smile on my face.
