Several months ago, I took up a new hobby.
Rollerskating.
Rollerskating!
And I absolutely love it.
I skate with my family, with friends. My amazing friend and I even went to roller skating camp for adults! Like, full on, sleep away camp for adults. With rollerskating! It was the best.
There are so many lessons hidden inside this new passion. The lessons behind trying and trying until I succeed at something, getting up from a fall, not getting discouraged. So many ways of seeing things.
But there’s this one story that has really stuck with me.
Being new to the sport, I tend to fall. A lot. And one time, I tried something that felt pretty scary (“dropping in”), which took a lot of courage for me. And I fell. Hard. Backwards. I hit my head (I was wearing a helmet), but it definitely took the wind out of me, and shook me up. And I felt pretty scared to try again. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong, and I was scared to fall like that again. But I wanted to try.
So I stood there, at the top of the ramp again. And a little boy had come over by that point, just to watch. He sat next to the ramp and was just watching me, waiting for me to try again. But I was stuck. I was fully in my head, and was stuck. I continued standing there for quite some time. I eventually said to the boy, “I'm just in my head, and I can’t stop thinking about it!”.
And he responded with the most magical thing.
He said.
“Just don’t think about it!”
And then continued with,
“Think about cupcakes!”
How about that?
Think about cupcakes.
It was beautiful. This simple idea. I am in control of my thoughts. I can let the fear get in there. Or I can change that. And think about something awesome. Like cupcakes!
Did I do it? I sure did. I thought about cupcakes. And I dropped in again. I didn’t fall, and didn't hit my head. But I have fallen since then, and I will continue to fall. Again and again. I can continue to get scared, and I'm sure I will.
But that skate park genius’ advice will stay with me forever when I do.
Think about cupcakes, everyone.
