2021 Success Means Ditching This

You know how sometimes you read a book and get a ton of ideas and insights? And other times it’s just one thing, but that one thing is totally worth it? This past Thanksgiving a friend gave me a book titled “Life is a Bicycle: If You Stop Pedaling You’ll Fall Off.” It even had a red bicycle on the cover! A few days later when I was reading, I came across these words: “while biking every day…” Not even a full sentence and I had to stop. “Every day?! I could never bike everyday” I whispered to myself. Dismayed, I put the book down and let it go. But the idea wasn’t about to let go of me. The words came back: biking every day. But this time a new thought immediately came up. “That’s exactly why you need to do it. You need to bust your limiting belief that you won’t have the energy.” You see, I was just getting my energy back from months of intensity… and that was on top of managing hypothyroidism, a condition that zaps your energy by handicapping your body from turning food into fuel. So, of course, I could never bike every day.

Except there was also the fact that I didn’t even own a bike until last March and since then I had pedaled nearly 1000 miles. Including twice doing a 50-mile ride. Even during those months of intensity. The truth has a way of snapping us into reality. Suddenly, this nagging, self-limiting belief became so irritating! I became annoyed that I was letting this belief define me...to me. Though I had not biked every day, there was clear evidence that I could bike. A lot. So, in that moment I decided to do something to get rid of this belief. I put myself on a 30-day challenge of biking everyday starting December 1. My own “rules” were simple: Get on my bike every day. No matter how long. No matter the weather. Take a photo and post it to Facebook. Some days I biked in 20 and 30 degrees. Some days were super short (around a parking lot) and others longer (Dec 23 I did another 50-miler!). Some days I looked forward to it and others I didn’t want to get out there. But I did get out there and posted a photo to meet my challenge. The comments cheering me on blew me away and totally kept me going on the days I didn’t feel like biking. My final ride on December 30 felt incredible! It was a mix of deep sense of satisfaction and gratitude. My limiting belief was smashed to smithereens and my heart was full from so much encouragement.