A few months back I did a long mountain-bike ride through the Rocky Mountains, starting in Banff, Canada, and finishing a few hundred kilometres short of the Mexican boarder.

I peddled about 400km through beautiful remote areas of North America. One of the reasons for me to do this was to be free for a few weeks. Free from everyday normal life – the phone, work, family and all other daily rutines.

This freedom was definitly achieved for the 24 days of riding. But I was never free. I was still committed to something, the bike, peddling, the designated route (it was a very hard route). At times it was a very harsh imprisonment. No freedom at all. Yes, very free from normal life back home but totally in prison to that dammed bike ride. One main lesson to be learned from this was patience. A form of patience that is very hard to explain. But the result of the patience was I achieved what I set out to do. I had to find my pace that I could handle each day, and a pace that could be sustained day after day for at least 25 days.   15 – 17 hours each day peddling on a bike through mountains on forestry roads.

If we are all a bit more patient we could achieve much more in life. Don’t look at the final goal all the time. It may be too big and convince you to give up. Just quietly think of the small steps to be taken each day that all add up to achieving that finally goal, and stick at it.

Kevin