Ok, first of all, I'll come clean: I care about how I look when I ski...and contrary to the above denials, I doubt I am the only one (judging from the amount of widely posted internet video of some people here, these denials are somewhat laughable--you guys are down-right skiing exhibitionists!).
Secondly, as an Adult learner (like a few others here) I have had to negotiate between skiing for pure fun and making the time I ski productive (that is, working on and thinking about technique) to make up for lost time and actually get good enough to really enjoy the sport.
Last season, I made an active attempt to silence the 'coach inside my head' while I'm skiing. I started by making as big of turns as I could in just about every situation (in some situations, these are still small turns!). Then I spent as much time as possible looking at the terrain I was skiing and trying to find every interesting knoll, dip, bump, roll, I could spy and then ski over/ through/ off of it. I try to remember skiing is a game, it's play time...but, I often have to focus on the playful aspect because that nagging internal coach grew so dominant.
Anyway, as I stretch out my turns, play with the landscape, try to make each run very different from the last (which, this season, takes some effort on a small mountain with less than stellar coverage!), my skiing gets better and better.
I haven't killed the inner coach, I still need him--after all, I'm still new enough to skiing that I need the feedback and corrective impulses to keep improving (and to truly own the improvements I've already made), but I actively try to focus on fun, creativity and the feel and the shape of the landscape before me as much as possible.
And sometimes I think about how I look skiing as well...
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