Learning to Learn

When I bought my first road bike, I remember staring in awe and terror at the clippless pedals before I had even handed over payment. I learned to ride a bike more then a decade before but the notion of clipping my feet to my bike while riding seemed impossibly foreign.

My first day on the bike I rode a total of ZERO miles, instead I asked my husband to patiently stand in the driveway, holding the bike steady as I practiced clipping in and out. Day two, I took the bike to a school yard and practiced on the grass before I hit road. Once on the road every intersection had me panicked, an opportunity to full system failure.

The first summer I owed the bike I road the 150 mile, two challenge - MS Bike to the Breakwater. I entered the race fully confident in my skills handling the bike and going the distance, I was on my game. The first day I rode conservatively but intentionally, fueling up at each available support station and finished the day feeling great. Day two I woke up feeling better then I could have imagined. I jumped on my bike and rode with confidence, charging town lines (a little sprint game I play with my husband) and smiling brightly as we past family and friends at the day's half way point. The final support station is 14 miles from the finish line, we pulled in to grab a quick snack before the final push, I was beaming. Still in conversation with one of the volunteers I went to get back on my bike - I clicked my right foot in at the bottom of the peddle stroke, stood up and fell over. Yup just like that - WACK - I was on the ground.

Three years later, I ride without thinking about my clippless pedals. Clipping in and out are ingrained. I am not longer a new learner.

Getting to this point took trust, practice and time. It took falling over in front of my friends, strangers and at inconvenient times. It took a willingness to be vulnerable, insecure and accept that failure isn't the end of the road.


This American Life Host, Ira Glass produced a wonderful piece about the process of learning, a reflection on his development as a story teller and learning curve with radio.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
http://transom.org/?p=6978





This lesson came up today in a conversation about new learners and social media. It might seem like a strange connection to make but all of the same emotional components I experienced on my bike, follow us in our personal and professional pursuits. We can choose to name them, bring attention to them, laugh about them and work through them or we can choose to ignore them and allow them to stop us from learning. I will continue to opt for the former and work to help my clients do the same, even if it means falling flat on my butt sometimes.