Believe

I’ve mentioned here that I’m currently making my way through Bounce. Yesterday I read about the difference between mastering skills and putting all those skills together to perform flawlessly when it counts. Those 10,000 hours of deliberate practice may earn you skills, but those skills mean nothing if you don’t believe that you can apply them.

I take notes when I read books I want to learn from. I wrote the following:

Decide what to do taking into account weaknesses and the possibility of failure, but believe fully that the execution will be perfect.

I also noted this direct quote:

Doubt is the fundamental cause of failure in sports.

I rode with this in mind on my painful, out of shape, hot, sunny ride up Rocky Ridge today. As I approached the first section of chunk I reminded myself that I’d ridden it before, and that all I needed to do was to keep my balance and crank. Instead of the usual, “This is hard, but try,” it was, “You know you can do this, so do it.” Up and over I went. This was the second time I’ve ever cleaned it. The first time I felt like I only *just* made it. This time I finished with speed and power.

Next up was my nemesis, a narrow section between two big rocks. I’ve never ridden it because I’ve always been afraid of hitting my pedals on them. Today I took a good look at the approach, told myself there was plenty of room, followed with a “You can do it,” and did it. It wasn’t even hard. What was my problem?

My problem was doubt. Doubt on the bike makes me quit early and put my foot down.

I need to take this mindset to the root at Gap. I can get my front wheel up just fine. The only thing keeping me from cleaning it is doubt.

Stop doubting. Start believing.