Blog #572: Until the Light Turns

I’m in Marina del Rey.

I was walking on an ocean path shared
by walkers, joggers and bicyclists.

Usually…

Among these three different groups, there’s an implied “Let’s all share this awesome path and be happy!” mentality.

But not today.

I was run over by a bicycle.

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When I’m on this particular shared path…

I walk on the far side of the path so I can see the bikes coming at me.

It’s the dirt part of the path reserved for walkers.

In 15 years of walking this path…no worries.

But…

My lucky streak just…crashed.

______

I saw him coming from 30 yards away.

He was on a bicycle.

His head was down.

Both hands were off the handlebars.

And he was texting.

As he got closer to me…

He still hadn’t looked up to see the road. A few yards away from me, his bike began to veer from the asphalt path and straight at me.

I shouted, “HEY!”

______

Startled…

He looked up.

Way too late.

When he grabbed his bike’s handlebars, he overcompensated his maneuvers and lost control.

CRASH.

Me? I had a heavy bike and a rider on top of me.

Him? He landed on a pretty soft cushion…me.

He got up fast and ran for his phone.

He said: “Thank God it’s not cracked!”

Still on the ground, I asked: “Are you okay?”

He said: “Yeah…I’m good. Thank God my phone is, too!”

He picked up his bike and checked IT.

“Bike’s good!” he said.

He peddled off.

I watched him resume texting.

He had asked no return questions.

He had offered no apologies.

______

OUCH.

The road rash on my hand from catching myself on the ground, the bruises from the bike hitting me…they mattered slightly less than my pissed off thoughts.

“Wow…really?” I thought.

______

Much of the time…

I’m good at tweaking my inspiration and motivation. I’m also pretty good at navigating myself and others through challenges and accomplishing goals.

But hey…

I don’t have it all together.

One area I don’t is…

I’m lousy at navigating a path of “Namaste” when mean, rude, negative and insensitive people are poking my brain.

But it doesn’t stop after the moment…either.

I’m a dweller.

And I painfully continue to hang out with the negative feelings.

______

I KNOW I do this.

And in knowing, I at least have a chance to improve.

Because…

How can we ever improve if we fail to even acknowledge we fall short?

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And I KNOW I can improve.

As an entrepreneur my whole life, I’ve learned to breathe “results.” What that mindset can also grow, however, is a serious lack of patience when results don’t come fast enough.

But as the saying goes:

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

I was walking across Japan, and I met a “Teacher.”

He was a fellow hiker on the Shikoku Trail…and I only saw him walking on this one day. We had left the hotel at the same time to start the day’s walk.

It was far earlier than EVERY moving car…and as I started to cross the street on the world’s quietest street…he pulled me back.

He said: “We will wait until the light turns.”

I said: “But there are no cars.”

He said: “It doesn’t matter. We will wait until the light says it’s our turn.”

My crazy brain thought: “Why am I standing on this corner waiting THREE more minutes for the light to change…when there are zero cars around!?”

But the moment was clear in teaching me:

“Your patience sucks, Shawn.”

Today at home…

I still practice the lesson when I cross streets.

And…

“Patience” is coming.

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“Do I do better…or do I continue to let this area kick my ass?”

I decide for me.

You decide for you.

And in our power to decide…

we each have a powerful opportunity to whisper to ourselves:

“I’m better than that.”

Because we are.

S.