The other week I came off my bike. Full on, over the handlebars situation. Landing flat on my face and a nice couple of bruises to accompany it!
What I learnt from this experience was twofold really.
- How quickly do you get up? When you stumble, when you fall, when things don’t go your way – pick yourself up quickly and deal with the problem. My question to you is. When you encounter a problem in your life, relationship, health, career or anywhere else do you stay beat up too long? Do you wallow in it and play victim, or do you play victor? Do you (just like was instinctive for me on the bike) just get up, dust yourself off and deal with the problem. Luckily, I had some tools to fix the bike as the cause of the fall was because the chain had become slack and came off and got caught in the spokes. This leads me to the second thing.
- How do you contribute to the problems you are now facing? How are you responsible? When you ask yourself this, you become empowered to make a change. If it was truly nothing to do with you, it’s a lot harder to find a solution in my experience. If you can take some responsibility. You’ll be better off. In my case, it was my fault. Who else was to blame? The reason it was definitely my fault is because I am responsible for my bike’s maintenance. I am the one riding it. I also noticed that a few weeks prior the chain felt a little loose and I realised I needed to do something about it. But I didn’t.
Have you ever avoided the problem to the extend that a bigger problem them comes along?
I know I have and on more than one occasion. Not just on the bike, or even at work – but also not that long ago in a relationship that ended. When truth be told there were teeny weeny problems throughout but as they were seemingly so inconsequential I told myself they would work themselves out. They didn’t. In the end, it mounted to the extent of the termination of the relationship. I believe that had I acted sooner the big problem would have been avoided. Just like on the bike. Had I fixed the chain earlier, I wouldn’t have gone over.
Where are you currently avoiding dealing with an issue? An uncomfortable situation at work? In your health or relationships? Don’t get caught out and find yourself flying over the handlebars of your situation. You might get more than just a few bruises!
Deal with the issue now, and if it does strike you. Then just work to move past it and move on without staying down too long.
It might be a lesson learnt on the bike, but it’s one that carries through to business, relationships and life in general.
What do you think? Leave your comments below.
