Growth

Over the weekend, I rode my road bike for the first time in at least a year.  It was both fun and awful.

To get the worst out of the way, it was awful for all the reasons I stopped riding it.  By the second mile, my forearms hurt.  They still hurt hours later.

It was fun because riding bikes in general makes me feel like I’m about nine years old, no cares, grin plastered to face.  I like the wind and the landscape and the feeling of propelling myself into the future.

The fun part means that I am even more determined to find a solution to the awful part.  If there were no fun part, the answer would be easy:  stop riding the road bike.  (I also have a mountain bike, but it is not as light and fancy and speedy as my Best Road Bike Ever.)  I have been approximating my way to the solution for some time now, so what I learned over the weekend was that I’m not there yet.

So far, I have tried expensive bike fitting, supportive wrist and tennis elbow wraps, vitamins, chiropractic, ice, prayer, yoga, rest, more rest, and a bunch more things.  I have more things to try, like new handlebars, physical therapy, and whatever else I might discover that could work.

The point of this story?  Growth mindset.  We don’t get to choose what we have to deal with.  We do get to choose how.  I could give up.  Instead, I choose to keep working.  I am not going to say that there isn’t a solution.  There just isn’t a solution YET.

We all have recalcitrant problems.  We can all decide that those problems aren’t going to win.  It might take a while, but we can do it.