The problem was easy enough to fix once I noticed it. By releasing some of the tension in the brake cable, I was able to generate much more forward speed for the remainder of the ride. And in that moment, I realized I had just re-enacted one of the models I use with clients in order to make greater forward progress on their primary goals.
N.R.G – Notice, Release, Generate.
Until I noticed that my progress was slower, I never bothered to do anything about it. In fact, even afterward, I still had simplistic reasons to explain away my results, but it was the act of looking that revealed the cause. Often times, clients do the same thing, with the most common reasons for stalled progress being that there’s not enough time or money, else there are external circumstances at play. While that may be true, the act of deliberately noticing all that you can about your experience of a situation has a way of revealing new information that was unavailable prior to the conscious act of noticing.
On my ride, I was able to release brake tension. For my clients, this is about letting go of default ways of being, unchallenged assumptions, thinking that “that’s just the way things are,” or perhaps about surfacing unexpressed expectations or resentments. Not until these things move from the subconscious to conscious awareness do we gain the ability to make deliberate choices about how we want these things to impact our lives.
Finally, I was able to generate greater forward motion. For clients, this step is about using the energy that was freed up from the release, and applying it towards things of greater importance.