First Fall on My Mountain Bike

If you have ever enjoyed any sport, you know that at some point, a fall is going to happen. I am proud to say that I had my first fall on my Mountain Bike. Fortunately, it wasn't a horrible one—a fall. My friend and I were riding on a dirt road heading toward the small stream that crossed the road. I watched Jaimie as he made his way smoothly through the creek and up the other side of the bank. I have made this crossing at least three times before with no problems. Not this time. I didn't slow down or make any changes as I headed down the small wide road towards the creek, hit the water, and lunged forward, hitting a rock, which threw me further off balance trying to regain my balance and crashed right into the bank on the other side, bike flipping and landed on top of me. My first reaction...SHIT! I hope no one saw me. Then the mad dash to get the bike off me as fast as possible. Because I didn't want anyone to see me, the handlebars were crossed, and one of my legs was caught in the handlebar. It took me a few seconds to untangle myself from the mess. Of course, here comes Jamie asking me if I'm ok, then he started laughing when he saw that I was ok and was laughing at myself. Only a few minor scrapes and full of mud. Standing in the stream, rinsing off, and laughing was a great release.

Being the person, I am, over f...... analyzing every mistake I make. I had to laugh—such a metaphor. The mistakes I made were classic, simple beginner mistakes. I watched Jamie as he rode down the bank, through the water, and up the other side. It would have been better if I had been preparing myself for my brief travel. Watching where I was supposed to go...keep your eye on the goal...I need to drop my bike seat and position my rear end behind the bike seat to give better traction to my back tire and maintain better balance. Instead, I watched the person ahead of me, didn't drop my seat, kept peddling, and held my body in the same state I did for the flatter, smoother road.

I thought this was a great example of what we do in business or our personal life. We watch, compare ourselves to someone else, and don't make the appropriate changes we need to make when navigating our own life. Isn't that how we use comparison in an unhealthy way? We expect ourselves to make it like the other person, we may even know what to do, but we don't do it. We fall, get mad at ourselves, and are pissed off at the bumps, scrapes, and bruises left behind. We may even be embarrassed and respond with a SHIT! I hope no one saw it! Keep riding, but hide our mistakes...I know I have acted in this way.

This past year my goal for myself was not an achievement goal. My goal was to laugh at myself more, catch myself when I was getting defensive and ask for help from the right people, a person or mentor who has done what I wanted. For this year, I want to laugh at myself. The funny thing is...the more I laugh at myself, the better I feel about myself. The less I compare my worst to someone else's best. The more I see someone else's scrapes and bruises. I must admit that for the first time in my life, I have someone who laughs with me and doesn't try to change me. It only teaches me something when I ask...I find myself asking more...There is no pressure or judgment. That, too, is a great example. It's nice to have friends to laugh with you, but we do need to be able to laugh at ourselves.

Og Mandino wrote, " I will Laugh at the world." That is a good thing to do right now. Laugh at the world, laugh at ourselves

and our falls, get back up, rinse off, learn and grow.