Learning How To Fall ... You Have To Learn To Fall Before You Can Ride With Confidence!
About a month ago, I was hit by a car while riding my
motorcycle. The car side-swiped me and took off. My bike bounced off the car, shot out from under me, and I rolled under the car. Amazingly
enough, I stood up, picked up my bike, and got to the side of the street without any problems. All I had was a small bit of road rash on my
elbow. I was lucky!
However, I'm not writing this to acquire oohs and ahhs, but to discuss one important lesson I
learned from this incident that applies very well to life in general. The basic lesson I learned here was that, now that I am confident in
hitting the ground and surviving, I have actually become a much better rider. Of course, they do say that there are only two types of motorcycle
riders --- those who have gone down, and those who have not.
--- Change and Balance ---
At the beginning of many of my coaching sessions, my clients ask me why things fall apart, out
of the blue, once they get moving along in their lives. Believe it or not, there is an answer. It has to do with balance, lessons, and traversing
new and unknown paths. In all cases, the only time we encounter challenges is when we decide to move forward toward a new goal. In our movement,
we throw our environment into an imbalance causing a chain reaction of events around us to push balance back into the situation.
We usually see this surge for balance as a problem, challenge, or issue and then back off to
fall back into the safety of the original situation. But, realize, that such surges are merely in response to your own desire to change. When you
initiate change, your environment creates an equal and opposite force against change. It is called "nature".
--- Crash and Burn ---
Once we are able to overcome the initial
inertia of change and move forward, we inevitably encounter challenges that will cause us to stumble and fall. Such challenges are not in place
to cause us to quit, but are there to wake us up and make us realize that we can endure much more than we thought we could and still continue
along our path. Falling enables us to see our own character and abilities to prepare us for the future challenges. This is a stair-step approach
to bettering ourselves and becoming stronger in our resolve.
However, the important part of falling is that you learn how far you have to go to hit the
ground. In many cases, we fear falling because it's going to hurt. Indeed, wiping out at 50mph is painful, but survivable. But, once you know
what it feels like and can maintain your wits when you hit the ground, getting up and doing it again is easy because you know that you will
survive. In the end, you are better able to pursue the ultimate goal because you are no longer afraid of falling, or failing.
--- What's next? ---
I once heard the saying, "if you fall on your face, at least you were moving forward." It's an
interesting statement because, the only way to fall forward is if you have forward momentum when you fell. It's an excellent view to accept when
moving toward a goal as it can help make the potential falls easier to bear. This, because, inevitably, we will fall. But, so many times we get
caught up in the negative aspects of failure, or falling. Instead, view it as a wake-up call or a way to desensitize yourself so that you can
focus on your goal. In this way, future falls won't be so dramatic and our fear of falling won't get in the way of achieving our
desires.
Edward B. Toupin is an author, life-strategy coach, counselor, and technical writer living in Las Vegas, NV. Among
other things, he authors books, articles, and screenplays on topics ranging from career success through life organization and fulfillment. For
more information, e-mail Edward at etoupin@toupin.com or visit his
sites at http://www.toupin.com or http://www.make-life-great.com.
Written by: Edward B. Toupin
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