I went for a great mountain bike ride today in the mountains of Colorado. It was a beautiful summer day, with just enough fall in the air to remind you that it was September. I went with a couple of good friends who were much better riders than I am. In fact, I was reminded of how much I had forgotten in terms of technique for riding through soft sand and tricky trails. It was also a helpful reminder that I should never neglect my cardio workouts no matter how much I am currently enjoying my weight training…I was sucking wind!

After an hour, or so, of riding we ended up getting to a really nice downhill. Now, I gotta tell you, I LOVE downhill. Not just because I paid for it with all of the work of my uphill pedaling, but because it really is the thrill of the ride. Speed, exhilaration, fun…life doesn’t get much better. Of course it is important to remember that the trails that we were on are a little rough. I mean, it is not like we were riding on paved road. These were pretty tricky with exposed roots, medium and large sized rocks and ruts left from heavy summer rains. This meant being good at working with/around the encumbrances in my path. In a couple of sections I was getting pretty caught up on things, and a couple of times even went down. Let’s face it, unless someone gets hurt it is not a REAL sport. It took me more than one downhill section to remember the old sports saying “your body will go where your eyes are looking.” Once I remembered this, I started looking further up the trail and past the rocks and roots and I did much better. It is not that I was avoiding all of the obstacles, I still had to deal with them, but somehow not focusing on them directly and looking further ahead to where I was going allowed me to get through them with much greater ease.

You know, that same rule applies to the rest of our lives. It seems that if we focus too intently on the obstacles in our lives we will run right into them; guaranteed. Being able to look out ahead and not become transfixed by our problems helps us to put them into perspective. You don’t ignore them. You can’t. But we should give them their appropriate place. To fixate on them simply gives them more power and somehow “draws” us in like a black hole of trouble.