Lessons From The Saddle Of My Bullet – Part 3
Would you like each day to feel like a holiday? If so, read on…
Yesterday, I rode my motorcycle through four countries from London to Amsterdam to surprise my wife, Adele, who is in Amsterdam on business.
Over breakfast, one of her colleagues asked me what work I was going to do today…
“Well, first I’m going to write a newsletter to my Moving Mountains subscribers. Then I’m going to film a video lesson for my blog on one of the canals in Amsterdam and then I’m going to set up my portable recording studio and finish recording my next CD product, Mind Mastery 101.”
His face was visibly surprised. “That’s not work!” he exclaimed. As I left breakfast, I gave thanks that my work feels like play to me.
I believe that a fundamental part of being successful is being able to wake up each day and do the things you love to do. Work then feels like play. Once you figure out how to successfully make a fortune from your playing, life takes on a whole new dimension. This usually doesn’t happen overnight though. You have to prove yourself first by earning the right to success. Today’s lesson is all about what it takes to earn that right.
BULLET SCHOOL LESSON #3: The courage to get back in the saddle.
I watched, beaming with pride as Adele crossed her first river. Her submerged exhaust gurgled in a cloud of steam that trailed behind her as she navigated her bike through the rocky river. Two meters before she reached the other side, she hit a submerged rock and her Bullet fell on top of her in knee high water (watch the video below).
Still wet and in shock, Adele got back in the saddle and rode for another 10 minutes before pulling over complaining of an excruciating pain in her foot. It turned out that she had fractured her foot during the fall and could no longer use it to change gears.
She burst into tears, more from disappointment than from pain. She had come all this way, spent so much time and money preparing and only three days into our trip, it was already over for her. She spent the rest of the day in the ambulance.
The next morning, Adele showed me her foot. It was swollen and black with bruising. I nodded my head gravely as if to say, “Tough luck, honey…” One thing I know about my wife is that if you tell her not to do something, she becomes even more determined to do it.
She looked at me with disgust and said, “I didn’t come all the way to the Himalayas to ride in a bloody ambulance! Pass me my boots please…” She screamed in agony as we persuaded her fractured and swollen foot into her damp bike boot. I piggy backed her to her bike and between us, we figured out a way for her to change gears using her heel instead of her foot. As long as she did not put any weight on her fractured foot, she might just be able to ride.
That day, 30 bikers rode through some of the toughest terrain known to man (the Himalayan Mountains). Adele was one of them. She fell off many more times, but each time she chose to climb back on her Bullet. Nine days later, not only was she the only woman to cross the finish line, she was still the only woman on the trip.
Adele is no different from you and I. She is an ordinary person with an extra-ordinary commitment to being successful at whatever she does. Her story contains many powerful metaphors:
- BE CREATIVE: Through finding a way to change gears with her ankle, she learned that there is always a creative solution to any problem. You just need to be willing to look for it.
- BE COURAGEOUS: She learned that the only prerequisite to success is finding the courage to get back in the saddle and continue riding. Life works in the same way.
- KEEP FOCUSSED ON YOUR DREAM: She completed the trip because she never gave up on her dream of riding through the Himalayas, even when it was extremely painful to keep going. If you are willing to keep going, even when the going get’s tough, success will follow you wherever you go.
- USE A TEAM: 30 bikers rallied together to help her complete the 12 day trip. She never would have finished had she tried to do it on her own. Make sure you have a team supporting you. Otherwise, success can be hard and lonely.
Next time you face a disaster, will your dreams become yet another casualty of war, or will you get back in the saddle and ride off into the sunset? Choose.
If you choose the ambulance, in two years time, your life will probably look the same as it does now.
If you keep choosing the saddle, you will eventually reach a point where each day feels like a holiday, as you live the life of your dreams.
Till next time…
Stay in the saddle,
Bruce
Tagged with: bullet lessons • enduro india
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