HOW TO BE CONFIDENT IN 3 STEPS
- Believe in yourself – trust your gut – always
- Surround yourself with people whom you trust and believe in and who believe in you
- Always move forward – learn from your mistakes, but don’t let them hold you back
CLOSE CALL
What’s so important about my recent close call? It’s a lesson of confidence in a tight situation. It is a brief example, but everyone who drives a car or rides a bike can relate.
Yesterday I went on a ride with some friends. We decided to ride in the hills even though it recently rained. Most areas were dry, but at the top it was wet. The road is about a lane and a half wide towards the top with many blind turns and no shoulder. Cars usually don’t come to the top, but when they do, it gets pretty tight on some of the corners.
It was an uneventful ride to the top. On the way down I chose to descend slowly because the road was still damp. Going slow, enabled me to stay closer to the inside edge of the road. As I approached a particularly tight blind turn, a dark grey truck suddenly appeared crossing the center of the road and cutting the corner sending it right into my path. Behind me, my friend screamed as the pickup missed me by mere inches.
I remember smoothly slipping past the truck and easily avoided crashing into the wall of the hill or the truck for that matter. I told myself it wasn’t my time to go and continued to ride down the hill.
At the bottom, my friend mentioned how impressed she was with how I missed the truck in the tight space and didn’t crash.
From her perspective, I narrowly avoided a head-on and potentially fatal crash. From my perspective, it was just another tight situation I confidently moved through.
The confidence you have in many different situations is often reflected in how your confidence appears to others. I believe in myself, and it shows through for others to see.
After many years of riding in lots of different situations, I am confident in my cycling abilities. I trust my gut on the bike, always. I only ride with people who are skilled cyclists And now I have another situation to add to my experience database. Another experience to inform me on future rides.
