One Step Feels Good. Two Is Momentum.
It was lying there… dramatically. I was sure it hadn’t moved, but it felt like I couldn’t walk by it like normal. It had something to say to me or was giving me one of those looks that tells me I need to reconsider the situation again for some reason.
“What do you want?!?!” I shouted in my mind at its pitifulness.
I’d made a mistake. I’d asked a question, and my mind LOVES trying to answer questions.
“I want air!” it would’ve if it could’ve replied, “And you!”
It was a Christmas gift. Ok, to be honest, it was a 2023 Christmas gift that I’ve almost completely neglected.
Asking what it wanted would normally be a safe question, but not this time. Because I know about high agency and can’t unknow it, the fucking unicycle had a voice of it’s own!
I have applied this logic to set my self-belief surrounding so many skills:
I am human.
Humans can unicycle.
I can unicycle.
“So why wasn’t I learning the unicycl—STOP! STOP STOP!” I tried to jerk the wheel off the road before we got to the end of the question! I didn’t want HIM to hear it! He’s so powerful, and he knows the answers to these things.
But it was too late. The tiny High Agency George Mack that lives in my head had heard everything. He immediately slammed his hand down on one of the big, red buttons on his dashboard. It was labeled, “INVERSION.”
Just like I said in my post regarding inversion, I was afraid to apply this technique to something because I knew it would work.
It was as if the unicycle handed me a laminated document that said:
How to get worse at the unicycle:
Do not ride the unicycle
Do not ride the unicycle consistently
Do not fill tire with air so unicycle is unrideable
Do not have safety gear nearby so you feel you have to choose between learning and death
I was in the middle of grilling chicken at the moment, but I STILL knew the answer was to just take ONE small step. I know me and if I can get TWO of those small steps connected then I feel the momentum and it can completely change how learning something feels!
My first step was to put an extra air pump a friend gave me and my old helmet right next to it. I’m proud that I have learned these ideas and found a place to apply them because now I have momentum only one step away!
