THE CURB
When I was a kid there was a 6″ curb along the road that all of us used to ride our bikes on to see who could ride it the furthest. The first couple times we could only ride a few feet then we’d fall off the curb that was only 6 inches high. Then after trying more and more, and of course having the competition of the other kids in the neighborhood, we would be able to ride the full length of it, which was like 100 yards! The curb wasn’t high and so there wasn’t fear of anything bad happening. We could just concentrate on the task we had to do, which was riding further than the next kid!
Well, what would happen if we raised that 6-inch wide curb up 2 feet? Now it’s fun, right? What about 6 feet? Oh man…..are you getting nervous now? What about 20 feet? Scary AF! Right?! What changed? The width didn’t change. We won’t add any wind or anything to it, so really NOTHING changed between riding on it at ground level or 20 feet. Sure I’ll admit there are consequences if you fall at the 20 ft height. But if you boil it all down, the thing that changed between all the different heights is YOUR confidence level.
I’m sure, like the kid version of me, you would have all kinds of confidence when it was low to the ground. You wouldn’t be clouded by the “what if I fall” stuff or what might break if you hit the ground. You would be filled with the confidence of what you CAN do. Not what you CAN’T do. This exact thing happens in jobs, in competitions, in life. Confucius said, “those who think they can and those who think they can’t are usually both right”. It’s true. Your mind is a VERY powerful tool and it can be used to do so much. But if we let it, it can also crush EVERYTHING for us. And because of this, we need to be able to control where our thoughts go.
Negative thoughts turn into a whirlwind of crap and it’s VERY tough to break that cycle once it starts. It’s better to block out the bad thoughts before they happen. Box your thoughts in. Keep them positive. Light thoughts. Flow. This will build your confidence and keep you calm while you are performing. Keep your confidence up while you keep yourself down on the ground level curb so you can ride the entire distance of the curb. Confident and focused on what is happening, not what can or might happen! 🙂