Can You Bike One-Legged And Make The Impossible Possible?
Pursue Goals Unbiasedly And Free Of Presumed Limitations
IMPULSE : Can You Bike One-Legged And Make The Impossible Possible?
In a lot of situations, we think Oh No, what are you thinking?! This doesn’t work! This is impossible!
Why? Because according to our thought pattern, we were taught, trained, and wired in a way that tells us certain things are just impossible.
Like riding your road bike with one leg. Or riding a bike uphill with one arm. (Road bike, not e-bike).
Biking the other day through vineyards and nature, a fellow road bike rider passed me and I notice he had one arm in an arm sling. Holy crap! I love riding my road bike every other day but when I imagine I had a broken or injured arm, not “usable” because it is fixed in an arm sling, I for sure would think, darn, that’s it for a while with the biking. Poor me!
I guess self-pity, low with-one-arm-biking confidence, and a narrow mindset would limit my horizon.
It is impossible to ride a bike with one arm. That is my thinking, my feeling, and my experience when trying to get on/off a bike with one arm because in the other I carry a bag. Or imagine riding up a hill with one arm. No fu+++ way.
We are talking about a road bike and not a comfortable bike where you sit upright on it and can get on and off very easily. On a road bike, you are also bent over and have all your weight on your arms, at least when you go uphill.
You Can Make The Seemingly Impossible Possible
If the one-armed biker is not enough – I saw on the bike paths several times a guy (not sure if it was always the same dude) riding his road bike with one leg. One leg was amputated and, no, not extended with an artificial leg to the pedal. He just pedaled with one leg. And I still don’t know how he would get on/off the bike and manage the first push.
Have you tried? What if you don’t know if a challenge you face is something that can be figured out or not? What is your thought pattern when you approach a challenge without pre-information, context, or history?
There is a famous legend in which a student mistook examples of unsolved statistics problems for an exam assignment and solved them.
A hard-working college student arrived late to his classroom where fellow students had already started the exam. He found three equations written on the blackboard, the first two went rather easily, but the third one seemed impossible. He worked on it and managed to solve the task in time before the exam was over. What he did not know, because he was late, was that the last task was just written on the board as an example of a problem that has never been able to be solved.
This legend is often used to showcase how we can achieve the impossible when we don’t know that it is supposedly impossible. It is based on a real-life incident that happened to George Dantzig and he recounted his feat in a 1986 interview for the College Mathematics Journal.
The one-arm and one-legged biker and the statistics problem solver are just some stories of many that show us how an open and positive mindset can break barriers.
When people have the chance to pursue goals unbiasedly and free of presumed limitations on what they can accomplish, they just may manage some extraordinary feats through the combined application of native talent and hard work.
When being stressed and rushed all the time we take shortcuts and use the prefabricated paths and solutions as it goes faster. We don’t slow down and take the time to try new ways or fresh thinking, as it takes too long.
Slowing down has the advantage to figure out new ideas and possibly make the impossible possible.
INSIGHT : The Power of Your Gut Instinct
Believe it or not, you DO have a gut instinct. And it is powerful. You just have to be aware of it, trust it, and use it.
This is a great TED talk I enjoyed listening to: the knowledgeable expert Sonia Choquette who talks about the limitless power of our inner guidance and how to use it. It is actually funny, and you can tell she is an experienced speaker and coach. She gives the audience little tasks to quickly practice being open, comfortable, intuitive, and connecting.
This is about:
Being comfortable with yourself.
Trusting your gut
Understanding that intuition is really the art of listening - not just with your ears, but with your entire body
How to trust our vibes and keep it simple
Expressing our gut feeling, without feeling guilty or apologizing for our decision based on our vibe
When we trust ourselves fully, we consequently learn how to be happy and at peace with ourselves. How can we trust ourselves? By slowing down and taking the time to pay attention to ourselves.
Listen to the TED talk here >>>
Okay, I just realized I have to watch that talk again. It is so insightful and helpful.
INDEPTH: “People Live a Life Pressing Buttons”
We can’t live without the buttons, but we could live with less button-pressing.
Even though there is a lot of input and imagination behind all those buttons we like to press and swipe throughout the day, it makes us stop perceiving and using our own imagination and intuition.
“People are so tied up in the worst parts of technology these days. They live a life pressing buttons. They don’t use their imaginations.” — Iris Apfel
Iris Apfel is such a riot and usually spot on! Now, this 101-year-old fashion icon (and self-proclaimed oldest teenager in the world) is a celebrity on Instagram — which doesn’t mean she is pressing the uploading buttons herself. Ms. Apfel takes care of the imagination, and her entourage takes care of blasting on Instagram her endlessly colorful creations to her worldwide fans.
Living An Ideal Balanced Body-Mind-Spirit?
Paying more attention to what our bones and brains are telling us rather than to all those Apps and what they try to sell us.
Are You Using Your Imagination?
Imagination is an essential component of creativity, curiosity, and innovation and it offers the foresight to see beyond “what is” to “what could be”. Then it takes a good portion of grit to turn that vision into a reality.
Moderation In All Things
„True self-control means moderation not just in what we do, but also how we think, how we feel, how we comport ourselves in a world of chaos and confusion.” — Ryan Holiday
Principles And Values Help Keeping A Balance
Being grounded in your principles give you resilience and a framework for how to act, react and behave when facing the challenges of daily life.
This article is about giving you a different perspective on balance, noticing what can “balance you” and becoming aware of the tiny little things in daily life that are “balancing factors” in your day.
If you like to get deeper - read my whole article on this here >
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