It’s always great to hear a powerful sermon or read an awesome passage of scripture or a crystal clear paragraph in a book and sense the light bulb lighting up over your head. Because of those words or that song; things that used to be muddled are clear, things that used to be confusing are now understood.
But if you’re like me…most of the time those defining moments don’t come that intentionally. They come out of nowhere, by surprise, when you least expect it.
That’s what happened to me a couple of weeks ago when Lainey and I were on our bikes in Dead Horse Point State Park outside Moab, Utah. Between the rocks and the trees, the canyons and the clouds; while on the bike, God taught me a few life lessons.
When I first began to blog about it the post was way too long. So to make it easier to digest I split it up into several posts. The first lesson was the importance of picking a line and committing to it. Don’t give up. To read more on that post, you can find it here.
The next day the lesson was the importance of not allowing your focus to fall to your front tire. Keep looking out in front. That way you don’t get surprised by the obstacles coming up in the trail. More on that post here.
Yesterday the lesson was no matter how hard we may look for it we won’t find a trail without rocks, obstacles and even a few dead ends here or there. But our skill on the bike is measured by how well we do when there are rocks in the path. More on that post here.
Today, I want to talk about momentum.
4. Momentum is key. In sports they call it “The Big Mo.” The best time to score points or runs is when you’ve just scored. You convert the high from your recent success into energy to repeat that success. Your confidence is high, the crowd has raised the energy level, the moment seems to rise to you easily. Heck, it’s easy to score runs when you’ve got all this energy going in your favor.
On the bike I’ve learned that it’s important to keep your momentum from the previous downhill right on through the difficult patch up ahead. A few times I’ve stopped to rest or celebrate only to find I’ve totally lost my momentum and now don’t have what it take to conquer what lies ahead.
The fact is when we stop the forward momentum we are most vulnerable. We say things like “I’ve been doing so well, I deserve a break. No one else is doing what I’m doing, I deserve some ‘me time.’ I’m giving out all the time, I should get the chance to do what I want to do.” With those words and with that attitude you lose momentum, you stop moving forward and you’re dead in the water; set up for attack.
You’ve got to keep the big Mo. What’s the best thing to do when you’ve had a major success? Don’t stop! Keep going. Let the momentum from that success carry you though to another, then another and so on.
Now here’s a question…what do you do about the bumps and bruises, scars and scratches you get along the trail?
I know! Let’s talk about it tomorrow!
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