Have you ever found yourself way out of your comfort zone on your skis or snowboard?

You’re at the top of Waterfall, for example, and there’s a massive line up at the Peak Chair and all eyes are on you… and the massive cliff drop ahead. Or, you’re in the trees and it’s getting too tight and you suspect you may be too far left. Or, you’re on a double black and it feels as though your heart is about to jump out of your chest.

In many ways this is what we live for in Whistler — the thrills, the risks, the passion for just getting out there and doing it. There’s no doubt our town attracts a certain kind of person — someone not content for an ordinary life. Anyone who has ever stood at the top of the Blackcomb Glacier or looked over at Black Tusk from the peak of Whistler Mountain knows exactly what I’m talking about.

Ski bums? Yes. But also PhDs and doctors and entrepreneurs. Welcome to a town full of driven and passionate people — Type A’s, for want of a better term.

I can relate.

Type A’s are often described as ambitious, competitive, impatient, risk-takers and workaholics in comparison to the more laidback and relaxed Type B’s.

Being Type A served me in good stead as a ski racer in my youth and as a young guy in business, keen to make my mark and carve out my own path. But as a 40-year-old father of four, it’s now giving me pause for consideration. I’m now trying to find ways to keep my inner A in check.

It’s the reason why I don’t go into the bike park in the summer. I know I’ll want to go fast, just as I did on my skis. And I’ll want to get air, just as did in my skis. I know that I’ll fall in love with the adrenaline, the thrill of the sport. But I also know I don’t have the patience to learn to downhill mountain bike safely at 40.

The same is true in business.

Now, more than ever, I’m aware of the need to reign it in, to temper my dominant A traits: to take smart risks, to be aware of timing, to be more controlled and calculated, to be more patient.

The competitiveness and the ambition and the drive never goes away. The expectations remain high.

And, perhaps best of all, Whistler always keeps you on your toes, wanting and expecting the best.