Seriously, what a great blog title, don’t you think? Pulled you right in, didn’t it? Even if you’re not a mountain biker, I challenge you to fill in the sport or activity that lights you up and see how it supports you to make huge leaps in your business.
For Love of Bike
I’ve been riding a mountain bike on some of the most amazing Colorado single track for the last seventeen years. Last year, both my husband, Mike, and I bought brand new carbon-framed racing mountain bikes. <gulp>
Mine even has the word “expert” in the name of the bike. <double gulp>
In order to feel like I belonged on such a fancy (with-”expert”-in-the-name) bike, I had to step up my game. I threw down the gauntlet by signing up for several endurance mountain bike races and… lo and behold!…. I started riding with more power and skill than I knew I was capable of on a bike.
Photo Credit: Mountain bike and life
partner extraordinaire, Mike Keffeler.
Biking and Business
So, while it’s probably true that mountain biking alone has not been the cause of my business growth in the past year (if that were the case, I think I’d find a way to ride even more), it – like all sports – provides a brilliant microcosm in which I’ve gotten to experiment with:
- How we self-sabotage through distraction and inaction
- The self-limiting beliefs we tolerate that keep us small
- How setting “stretch goals” make us… umm… stretch
In the many, many hours a week I’ve been in the saddle this last year, I’ve had plenty of time to ponder all the ways mountain biking (and sport in general) have given me the skills to be a better – and more successful – business person.
Top Three Business Skills Learned on the Bike
1) Decide and Take Action. Hesitation and double-thinking will only result in you being a scraped and bruised on the side of the trail… or, hiking your bike while everyone passes you.
The only way to prove that your Big Idea doesn’t have the umph to go the distance is to remain undecided and inactive on it. C’mon! What’s stopping you from taking that first small step to bring your Big Idea to life?
2) Look Where You Want to Go. This past weekend Mike and I were riding a trail with a technical decent. At the top of that section of trail Mike said to me, “For this whole section, just keep your eye on where you want to go – focus all of your attention on where you want to go – and you’ll be fine.” Turns out I rode some stuff I had no idea I was capable of… just by holding a single-minded focus on where I wanted to go.
Sure it’s scary to take risks and try something new in your business, I get that. But every ounce of energy you spend focusing on what’s not working or what could go wrong is diverting your momentum from where you want to go.
3) Momentum Makes It Easier. It never fails to surprise me what crazy set of obstacles my bike will roll over… if I have momentum. Conversely, without momentum it doesn’t take much to knock you off course and feel like a five-year-old who just had her training wheels taken off (does anyone have a band-aid??)
You’ve been there… it feels different to have a prospective client tell you “no thanks” when you just had three tell you “YES, where do I sign up?”, then to have someone tell you “no” when you’ve heard a succession of “no’s”. Take heart, momentum is built through the habitual practice of #1 and #2, pretty soon the natural blips and dips of business won’t even catch your attention.
I’ll be doing the Breck32 Cross-country mountain bike race in mid-July. So, when you see me taking some risks and trying something new in August (keep your eyes open – you’re going to love what I’m rolling out), you’ll know that I’m putting into practice some of the skills I built while out racing on the dirt….
Where are you stretching this year?
If I may add, since biking lets you encounter possible bumpy roadtracks, it also lets you keep your focus on avoiding direction where it may lead you to fall hard.
Pinky Tan´s last blog ..Love cannot fail but people can make it fail.
Your post, as always, started me thinking. Thank you! Here are a couple of additional ideas:
Love – How often do I think about love and business in the same sentence? How would life change if I put those two words together every day?
Path and Practice – How often do I set goals and identify a path without practice? How often do I practice with my intention and focus on the path?
There is a whole post about risk here too.
Still thinking …
All the best,
Kathleen
ahhhh, Kathleen… as always, I love how you think. The idea of love and business… that one is really resonating with me right now. Path and practice… risk. It feels like it’s all two sides of the coin. Business and life – what would change if we could embrace the ‘both/and’ instead of always thinking there had to be an ‘either/or’?