Don’t Let the Start, Stop You

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was my first ride without training wheels. There I was nervously positioned, sans helmet, at the top of our hilly driveway on Meadow View Drive. It would either be a moment of triumph or a horrific disaster.

I darted down our drive into the road – I still cringed thinking about, what if there was a car coming? – kept my balance, started to pedal, hair blowing in the wind, and was no longer was the oldest kid on my block with training wheels.

At that moment, I thought I could go anywhere. I was independent. Well, at least until my parents told me the rules of where I could go. As a six-year-old, I guess I was just slightly independent, but it was a start.

Last weekend, I was at an in-person conference. It was fantastic and bizarre to be among hundreds of attendees. Many speakers encouraged the audience to start something like a new habit, way of thinking, or business.

All this starting talk made me reflect on my first “big kid” ride. I couldn’t know it at the time, but that first anxious pedal stroke would ripple into my ride across America next year, which, by the way, will require over a million pedal strokes.

When we are younger, we start plenty of things, but something happens as we age; we put limiting beliefs in our backpacks and then let the start, stop us. There are plenty of excuses not to start, but you need to start pedaling to get somewhere even when you don’t feel truly ready.

So, when are you going to start something new?

This week’s video is about counting to a trillion and a tiny practice known as Pause Breathe Reflect, which started twenty years ago, and it’s now a global ripple helping others to step into their one wild and precious life.

And today, this beautiful ripple widens with the launch of our new B2C and B2B Pause Breathe Reflect Store. Many thanks to the fantastic folks at TOLA Marketing and Kate Curren for being part of the peloton that will bring P.B.R. closer to its vision of becoming the Life is Good® for mindful living.

I invite you to visit our store, and when you do, you’ll get a little something. I would love your feedback, and if you shared it with your peloton, I would feel as excited as I did during my first “big kid” ride.

Until next week, keep pedaling and have fun storming the castle!

Michael