Life provides obstacles, but you can choose what you focus on...and where you'll go
Avoid boulders: Where you look prevents cycling accidents
As I maneuvered my bike along a twisty path last week, I was reminded of advice a mountain biking racer gave me twenty years ago. His wisdom was meant for avoiding obstacles. I doubt he realized how profound it was.
“Where you look is where you’ll go.”Jim Carlson
In mountain bike racing, the biker needs quick-witted agility to avoid unexpected tree limbs, sudden crevices, plunging creeks, huge rocks—in short, the many obstacles that can topple a biker speeding along a winding trail. So Jim’s advice was simple: to avoid hitting a rock, don’t look at it. To navigate around a tree root, look where you want to go, not at the root that will take you down.
Did he intend to give me a free life lesson? I don’t know. But I do know that to achieve a goal, I must look at it—not everywhere else.
Conversely, Jim might have added, “Look where you want to go.”
Do I want to finish editing my manuscript? That’s where to look. Am I preparing a painting to exhibit? Then keep my eyes on the canvas. Where to look if I want to write 1,000 words before lunch? At my draft, not Instagram or TikTok or the pile of laundry in the corner.
It’s become second nature for me to summon this mantra when I find myself struggling with a goal. Where you look is where you’ll go.
While I’m on my bike, take in my photography here.
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