I decided to learn how to properly roller skate.
Before 2023, I could only roller skate on one leg (no judgement please! LOL). I decided that 2023 would be the year that I learn how to properly roller skate using both legs. So, I bought a pair of new skates and signed up for an adult group roller skating class.
Good idea, right?
That’s what I thought until I rolled my happy tail into class and quickly learned that I had no idea what I was doing! Every fear and insecurity that I had (and a few I didn’t even know I had) showed up for me within 15 minutes of being in that studio.
That inner critic started yelling at me “What in the world are you doing?? Are you really a grown 40+ year old woman trying to learn how to skate NOW? Are you insane??”
Apparently, my inner critic has been waiting for this moment to pop out and tell me all of the reasons why and how I am going to fail at this.
But, guess what was the first lesson that of this adult roller-skating class?
Learning how to fall.
How fitting – considering that my mind was replaying images of all the ways I could fall and end up in the hospital!
We literally spent the first 30-45 minutes learning how to fall, intentionally falling, and getting back up, just so we can fall again.
At first, it felt like pure insanity. But, then, so many life lessons began to spring up that I felt inspired and empowered to take on every challenge and every obstacle inside and outside of this studio. Here are a few of those inspirations:
- Sometimes you have to practice falling so that you won’t be paralyzed with fear and cause unnecessary hurt, harm or pain. In real life, it may not always be practical to practice falling (or failing). But you can use your imagination to think about the ways you can fall. But, take it a step further and think of the ways you can recover from the fall. Practice in your mind so that when it happens in real life, you’ve trained your mind to think of solutions instead of being focused on the problem.
- The only way to conquer fear is to face fear with facts and knowledge. Each time you fall, you gain information that you can apply to your next fall so that you won’t be gripped by fear. And when you learn how to fall properly (knowledge), you minimize the risk of pain and you can recover quicker.
- No matter how good you are, you’re going to fall. Just because you fall doesn’t mean that you aren’t a good skater or good at whatever it is you are trying to do. It just means you’ve experienced a fall. No more. No less. In other words, a fall (or failure) doesn’t define you.
Fear will not only hold you hostage. But staying in a fearful mindset can cause more harm than good. While falling doesn’t feel good, you have to get used to it in order to grow from it and become the expert at what you’re trying to do.
Are you afraid of falling or failure? How can you used what I’ve shared here to help you push past your failures?
