Saturday 1 October 2011

Flexible mindset

They say there are two types of people; those with a fixed mind set and those with a flexible mindset.  I see myself in the later group and will explain how it works.  Today I went out with the ATHelite group of cyclists.  Here are the challenges we faced and what I thought.
Started in fog - I'll fit my lights when I get home to make sure I'm safer in future
We had heavy rain which wasn't forecast - a chance to improve my bike handling skills
One of the group had 3 punctures - this was not only a good refresher in how to change a tyre but a serious reminder about attention to detail.  Had we paid more attention it would only have been one puncture, not three, as a shard of glass was hiding in the tyre!
Long stretch of road covered in farmers muck - another chance to practice bike handling skills.
Slower pace than normal - more time to concentrate on technique.
You get the drift of the benefit of having a flexible mindset.  Those with a fixed mindset my not have got so much from the day.  When something happens to you, you have a choice as to how you react.  Today when we stopped for the third puncture and the heavens opened it would have been easy to feel sorry for yourself, but we still had 15 miles to go so we made the most of it.  We also supported each other which is important in a team.