Do Things You Cannot Do

We are all faced with things that we believe we cannot do. Every adult has experienced a day or time in his/her life when a difficult task is confronted.  Many times we are skeptical at our chances for success. 

This past weekend presented me with this exact situation.  

My husband and I love to ride our bikes around our home town.  We usually ride 15 miles each time we go out and we like to go out at least twice a week.  This length of ride is challenging for me to accomplish and definitely a workout!

We decided to sign up for the local YMCA’s fund-raiser bike ride and we chose the 30 mile ride. To say I was feeling anxiety and uncertainty the morning of the ride would be an understatement.  I was about to undertake a bicycle ride that is double my usual ride, and I honestly questioned if I would be able to accomplish it.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

Eleanor Roosevelt

The weather on the day of the ride was beautiful, but windy.  From experience, I knew there would be times when the wind would push me along, but other times, I would need to be fighting the wind.  This situation was definitely adding to my anxiety.  

I have an app that maps my bike rides and announces my distance and split times.  On my weekly 15-mile rides I average about 12.5 mph.  We were 15 miles into the 30 mile ride and my app announced that my average was 13.2 mph.  

At 20 miles into the ride, there was a pre-arranged rest/water/fruit stop. I was amazed at how easy it felt to get to that point of the ride.  I knew a challenging, hilly portion still lie ahead of us, but I was empowered to have gotten that far so quickly.

We ended up riding a total of 34 miles as we rode our bicycles to and from the YMCA starting point.  The average speed for our total ride was 12.7 mph.  

I cannot overstate the empowering feeling I had when I was home after completing this bicycle ride.  Successfully accomplishing something that I believed I could not do, is possibly the best feeling in the world.  

Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.

Thomas Carlyle

Next time you are faced with something you believe you cannot do, challenge yourself, dig deep and go for it.  You will find that you are capable of much more than you thought possible.