Recently, I wrote to you about our seven-year-old
granddaughter-in-love who just got a bike with training wheels. I’m pretty sure she hasn’t been dreaming of riding a bike with training wheels. No, she’s been dreaming of riding a bike, but she has to start somewhere, otherwise it’s going to feel too
daunting (and hurt more than it needs to).
For my father, who spent some of his growing up years on a farm, there were no training wheels or the luxury of an age-appropriate-sized bike. He had to lean his big brother’s
bike up against the porch in such a way that he could jump from the steps and land on it, and roll fifteen to twenty feet until he fell off. He did this over and over until he finally learned how to ride it.
Thankfully for our grown son’s generation and most young kids these days, learning to ride a bicycle means getting to start with the safety and security of training wheels. They get the feel of balancing on a bike and eventually the training wheels are adjusted so that some of the time they don’t fully touch the ground. Kids ease themselves into this childhood milestone and soon enough, riding a bike is so automatic, they don't have to think about it.
What would you do if you knew you could start with “training wheels?” Doing something new and scary with stabilizing support can be as simple as finding a friend who wants to do a similar thing and becoming accountability buddies with one another. It could
be someone you know or an online group of like-minded souls. Or your “training wheels” could simply be telling a friend what you want to try and asking for their encouragement—then taking the first action and letting them know how it went.
Something magic happens when we breathe life into our hopes and dreams by making them known to at least one other person. Too often, admitting to ourselves and then to someone else what we really want is the hardest part. Once we do that, it’s like pedaling a bike down a modest hill, gaining balance and momentum as we go.
What would you try if you had built in suport and knew it was okay to start slow? Be honest and let yourself admit something you’ve been dreaming of. Stop offering excuses like, It’s too late, I’m too old, or I don’t have enough money or time. Build "training wheels" around it and just get started. I believe in you and our FTG Readers Group can be your support.
