Monday, November 30, 2009

20 Things Mountain Biking Teaches You About Life

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Good writers have often used sport as a metaphor for life: the lessons of the playing field or arena applied to daily living. If Norman Mailer (boxing), William Kennedy (baseball) and John Irving (wrestling) had spent time on a mountain bike, they would have learned that:

20. Boldness pays.
19. Desperation breeds mistakes.
18. The hardest parts are also the loneliest.
17. There's fresh horse flop in the trail ahead.
16. Balance is first among the virtues; momentum is second.
15. Success requires confidence, but cockiness invites failure.
14. Sometimes, the best way past an obstacle is straight through it.
13. Some people get lucky at parts; nobody gets lucky at everything.
12. It's all about the being and the going, not the having and the arriving.
11. At each intersection, there's the easy way and the hard, rewarding way.
10. It's tempting to focus on the immediate problem to the exclusion of the big picture.
9. The thing that nails you is the one you don't see coming.
8. It's worth stopping for a breather to see where you are.
7. Thousands of tiny decisions shape the trip.
6. The fun starts when you push the limits.
5. You can get hurt, heal and go again.
4. Ups are followed by downs.
3. Practice makes you better.
2. No quitting allowed.
1. Love hurts (but don't let that stop you from falling in love.)

What have you learned from mountain biking?

3 comments:

Roy S. Jaleco said...

This is a great piece! Am into mountain biking myself and did a blog on the sport a couple of times but I guess this says it all! Cheers!

Sacred Rides MTB Adventures said...

Hey Roy, every time I'm on my bike I'm always thinking about how it applies to life. When someone sent this to me recently, I had to post it.

Enjoy the ride!

Mr. Walker said...

Loved this, I was actually posting mountain biking metaphors on life on my Facebook for a bit. One of my favorites came from the last honest salesman when my girlfriend and I were trying to buy her a mountain bike...

"You will never be happy with her on the mountain!"