Courage

What goes through your mind when you fail at something that you think you should be able to do?

When I first met Shyla, she'd hang her head as if she was about to get in big trouble. It was part of her lack of confidence. Now, after years of our encouragement, she's happy to try again.

Yesterday, we stopped to do this trick several times during our mountain bike ride. We are doing an online training program by Susan Garrett, and one of the themes is "impulse control". I do believe that balancing a treat on your nose until you are given the cue to toss it into the air takes a lot of impulse control!

Got it!

I try to take Shyla as my role model in learning to get over fears. I've mentioned before that I came to mountain biking after many years of road biking. Given the fragile state of my spine, my doctors would never have approved of it. So I didn't ask permission. I stopped asking permission a long time ago. Otherwise, I'd have a very limited life.

I started out as an incredibly tentative mountain biker, and I've become more adept at navigating technically tough trails with each year. However, I have certain "bugaboos" on nearby trails (sections of trail that scare me so much that I sometimes get off my bike and walk). Although I've ridden them in the past, my fear of them comes back when I'm not feeling 100%. Then, the fear often lingers after I'm back to full strength.

When I'm trying to overcome these transient fears, I try to think of Shyla, and all the courage she's mustered to become a well-adjusted dog. It's a strategy that helps my courage immensely. More often than not, I discover that I actually CAN easily ride a section of trail that used to scare me to death.

Thank you, Shyla!