The first and only time I ever hit 150mph on the ground was on my Ducati 999. I felt so alive and awake and conscious and aware. My eyes were never more sharply fixed upon my goal: the point at which the road met the horizon. My hearing was never more acute; my body never so connected to the machine I commanded to propel me like an Angry Red Bird out of a slingshot to a point I could not yet see, but absolutely trusted to appear.
That’s what you need to pursue and achieve a goal. Total, unwavering focus and bloody-minded, burn-your-bridges commitment. I’d come a long way from a near disaster that had almost ended me.
When once I nearly came off my bike on the Stockley Park roundabout, it was because my toe slider had caught under the peg as I leant the bike over onto my ear. I’d always wanted to get the bike leant over that far. I had just not been prepared for the unexpectedness of that success.
The bike wobbled badly and I straightened up and was heading for the wall. I felt death approaching as I stared at that final wall, the hard limit of my existence. Then suddenly, a voice in my head said calmly “LOOK. FOR. THE. EXIT.” I turned my head sharply towards it and without conscious effort, the bike sailed over, carrying me safely back on course. I screamed into my helmet like Steve McQueen at the end of Papillon.
Sometimes, when you’re going for something really big in your life and you achieve it, like touching down on a roundabout, like delivering on a major milestone, like getting some success in your projects, it can cause a wobble that can make you lose sight of your ultimate goal; can make you lose confidence in what you can achieve when you’re firing on all cylinders.
Listen to that small, still voice directing you to the exit and you will sail on.
You’re good enough. Live your life fully. You have it in you to achieve what you set your heart on if you stay totally, unflinchingly committed with searing focus and belief. Don’t wish for it, or hope for it, or pray for it, unless you’re willing to get behind it with absolutely every fibre of your being, including those fibres you keep in reserve because you’re scared.
Go do it, not because the fear tells you that can’t, but because that quiet, calm, still voice shows you that you can. You can.
You can.
