It’s been quite a while now that we’ve been pumping out these Make it Happen Monday posts over here at Loving the Bike…..and what I’ve always thought I was doing was sending out positive, inspiring pieces of writing mixed in with my own thoughts of the world.  Basically I’ve been pumping out self-improvement messages just like many of today’s best sellers and motivational speakers do.

But I’ve come to the realization that the term self-Improvement is nonsense.  The word suggests that people are broken and need to be fixed.  What I’ve also learned is that nothing could be further from the truth…..each one of us is perfect at our core.

What I’ve always thought and tried to impress upon each and every one of you is that certain changes must be made within ourselves in order to live the lives we wish to live and go on the rides we wish to ride.  But that is wrong.  Those of us who seek to find our best life and live out the desires of our heart…..must be dedicated to inner discovery, not outer change.

Sometimes telling people how they should live, or suggesting ways to help make their lives better and more meaningful just provides them with guilt and shame.  If any of my writings have ever created these feelings….I apologize.  But I do stick to the fact that we are all in need of development…..improving upon what we already are.

We actually start our lives with all it takes to live our best life.  As a child we were innocent and pure, creative, passionate, imaginative……we expressed our truest essence as a person and we totally lived in the moment and savored every simple gift we received.    We saw nothing but abundance and we saw the world as a place of enormous possibilities…..but then something happened.  We betrayed ourselves.

In order to “fit in” we began to rationalize, judge, and worry in order to become a “pleaser”.  The process of socialization kicked in as we did what we were told and acted so that we conformed to the world around us.

Without getting into too much detail……what we as Adults are striving for in our lives is to get back to where we started.  We don’t need any freaking Self-Improvement….we have it.  We just have to look inside to find where we hid it all those years ago.  From now on I hope to make these Make it Happen Monday posts based on self-discovery rather than self-improvement…..and help us all get back to the natural greatness and perfection we had when we were born.

Photo c/o thevantagejouney.com

Whoa……Hold on…..These fingers that I’m typing with right now are full of power and able to do amazing things.  That’s right, I have enough energy and power in one of these fingers to create all that I’ve ever wanted in life…..and more.

Believe it…..it’s true.  We all have an infinite amount of inner power to create the things we’ve always wished for and dreamed of.  If I speak the truth, how come we aren’t all living how we want?  Belief, Focus, Hard Work, Practice…..That’s why.  We don’t get all the things we want because we don’t believe we can have them…..we do not constantly focus on them……we do not work hard at mastering the techniques to attract them……and we do not practice these techniques in order to become a master.

Now you can choose to believe it or not.  You can choose to accept that you can’t have all you want because “the world does just not work that way”…..Or you can believe in the concept of Absolute Abundance and the Law of Attraction.  It’s up to you.  But what I am telling you is that if you choose to accept the fact that you can have all you desire, then it is possible to achieve all this with your little finger.  That’s right.  You possess a lot more power to achieve then you give yourself credit for……I know it’s a lot more than I give myself credit for.

You CAN complete an Ironman.  You CAN make more money.  You CAN become car-less.  You CAN become a faster rider.  You CAN…..

Learn the techniques (they are posted all over the internet), Dig deep inside yourself, Practice………….BELIEVE.

I was sitting here blank just a few minutes ago trying to figure out what kind of Make it Happen magic I could come up with.  I gazed out into space to think of anything inspirational that I had heard or that happened this week…..something that would make a nice motivating story.  Then came the buzzing annoyance of a mosquito in my ear…….and I instantly knew what I’d be writing about today.

“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you haven’t been in bed with a mosquito.”  - Anita Roddick

The above quote is one of the best forms of proof to show that no matter who you are or where you’re located, you can make a difference.  A difference in your life, in someone else’s life, in many people’s lives.

Although you may not believe it, you affect and make a difference in someone’s life more often than you think.  Many times we make comments that unknowingly change the lives of someone needing to hear your exact words.  We often act as a role model to some unsuspecting person in our lives.  Heck man, every time you jump on your bike, you are inspiring and motivating others to get out there and move their bodies as well…..and that is always a great thing.  So day in and day out, we can positively affect people with our actions and not even know it.

What if you want to intentionally motivate someone, but just don’t think you can do it?  Well, again you have a lot more power then you may think you do.  Do you think if a mosquito had a big enough brain to rationalize the thought of wreaking havoc on the sleep of a person a million times it’s size…….they would still do it?  No way man, they would totally talk themselves out of this intimidating feat.

The next time you want to accomplish something….anything, don’t let your thought pattern get in the way.  We see success stories happening around us every day.  Stories of people who never thought they would end up doing what they achieved….but they did it.  It was possible.  And it can be for you as well.

Keep on being an inspiration to the World…..and look for more opportunities to create a positive impact around you.  Make it Happen.

Other than my Family, cycling is about the only thing I’ve remained committed to over the years.  Since I took up road cycling 8 years ago, I’ve had a Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop attitude to pretty much everything about it.

On an overall level, cycling has become a huge part of my life and something that remains a major ingredient in my daily lifestyle diet. Looking back, I see how it has played a big part in formulating my life. In fact, I probably wouldn’t be living here in Austin, Texas right now if it weren’t for my love of cycling and my desire to ride year round in a sweet location.

As I look back, I also see that there hasn’t been a time over these past 8 years where I didn’t ride.  Each and every week, all year long…I’m on the bike.  Sure I had to take a little time off when I went in for the Big V, and at certain times like the birth of our babies…but nothing has kept me out of the saddle for any signifiant amount of time.

On a daily ride level, the Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop attitude is there as well.  Once I hop on the bike, I’m off like gang busters and totally motivated to complete the ride I’ve set out for myself.  Just the other day I had a ride that better explains what I mean by this.  About 3 minutes into my ride, I felt the wind blowing on my face and it snuck past my sunglasses to hit me in the eyes.  I soon realized that one of my contact lenses must be in backwards because it started to feel like it was going to pop out.  I blinked and blinked trying to fix the problem, but it just sort of kept nagging at me a little.  Sure I could have stopped for a couple seconds and fixed this….but I decided to keep on going and deal with it.  Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop….remember?

Now if I felt this was going to pose a serious threat to my ride that day, I would have definitely stopped and turned the lens around.  But in all reality, it just caused me to blink about triple the time I normally would so that I could keep the contact in there properly.  Just one example of what I mean by not letting anything stop me once I get out on the road.

I love that I have this attitude toward my Family and my Cycling….and here’s to wishing that it becomes the attitude in other parts of my life as well.

How about you?  Do you look for excuses as to why you can’t ride (or do anything else in life for that matter), or do you have a Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop attitude?  Let’s get out there and Make it Happen today, and every day.

Have you ever heard the quote, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”?  I think it was Confucius who coined that one.  How about this one…“The journey of a cyclist begins with the first 40 feet”?

When you set off for a ride, you’ve most likely got an idea of where your journey will take you….but when you’re out there, I would guess that your focus consistently stays on the 40 feet in front of you.  You probably take the odd glance left or right and from time to time look a little farther forward to see where you’re going and what lies ahead, but the majority of your attention focuses on the next 40 feet.

It doesn’t matter if you’re commuting to work, out for a quick 20, or riding a century, the journey to your cycling destination is completed 40 feet at a time.  It’s funny how the bike can mirror life, isn’t it?  “Life really is like a bike ride.”