At some point this spring, it occurred to me that instead of making the 7-minute drive to my indoor pool each morning, I could bike. The ride takes me 20-25 minutes and the best part? I don’t have to ride in the street at all thanks to bike paths plus a park by my house. From the very first day I biked, I was hooked. It’s a beautiful ride and feels like a great addition to my morning exercise regimen.
There was just one sticky patch.
A section of the park on my route is under construction due to a bridge rebuild. To navigate this, bikers must make their way through a narrow path with barricades on both sides, beginning and ending with a sharp 90-degree turn. A relatively new biker myself, sharp turns aren’t exactly — ahem — my strong suit.
During my first week biking to the pool, at these sharp turns I resorted to walking my bike through the barricaded path each way. But sometime during that second week, approaching the first sharp turn, something came over me and I decided to go for it. I slowed down as much as I could without tipping over and when the sharp turn came, I jerked my handlebars to the right. I felt adrenaline and panic rush through my body as I almost crashed into one of the barricades, but I *just* made the turn. Whew!
From that day onward, although I must admit I privately dreaded this moment on my route, I committed myself to attempting those sharp turns each day.
And what do you think happened?
Slowly (okay, very slowly) but surely, those turns began to get a little easier. Eventually, I found I wasn’t dreading them any longer.
Can I tell you today I’m ready to be a full-on mountain biker? Not exactly. But I can tell you this: I’m a heck of a lot more confident with making sharp turns on a bike than I was just a few months ago, and that feels pretty darn good.
So what’s the lesson here? Easy. If there’s something you’d like to be good at (or even just get a little better at), you have two options. You can never do that thing, which will 100% without a doubt result in you not getting any better at it. Or you can do it a tiny bit each day, and even if it feels like such a small thing you’re doing, over time, you will 100% without a doubt get better at that thing.
And it will feel awesome 👍👍
