Little man taught himself to ride his pedal bike today!

 When I say he taught himself, I mean he really taught himself. 

Let me explain, he started with a glider bike, begged for a pedal bike that he quickly put in the ‘too hard basket’ because it didn’t have training wheels and I refused to push him around on. He didn’t touch it for months...

It’s fair to note here that from the beginning, everything from sitting up, crawling, walking and climbing, he has developed these skills on his own. My only job was to watch, stop myself from interring (definitely the hardest part), and when needed, follow behind to limit any serious falls. 

So I shouldn’t have been surprised this morning when I peeked my head outside to find he had picked up the previously discarded bike and was quietly practicing pedalling. He would get a few rotations and then stop. It was a slow jerky progress and he was muttering to himself as he was practicing. 

Instead of interrupting him with my cheers of encouragement and distracting his focus I went back inside (I did secretly video him) and about 30-45 minutes later he quietly came in and asked me if I wanted to watch him ride his bike.

In that short space of time he became fully competent and was confidently riding his bike up and down the driveway. No skinned knees, no encouragement from me, no tears, and no big fanfare. 

And that’s the part I find the most amazing. It was a totally self driven experience. 

But then I realised this milestone day was actually a culmination of a thousand tiny acts and skills he has developed over his 3.5 years of life. It’s been a million little steps that all came together to make this magic moment of developmental fireworks and notable achievement. 

That’s what I have come to discover in business and most of life as well. For me there’s no more big home run swings or race to the finish line of life. I have come to the conclusion that the million dollar moments are only possible because of a million other choices, moments and steps that make those remarkable moments possible. 

It’s the steadiness of life that I relish now, mostly taking these little steps, hopefully guided by our values, surrounded by people you care about that makes life magic both in the small moments and the big. 

This is one of the ways of how ordinary life became extraordinary for me.