M2M Day 117: I finally landed my backflip and then became crippled with self-doubt
This post is part of Month to Master, a 12-month accelerated learning project. For February, my goal is to land a backflip.
Yesterday, I completed February’s challenge and landed my first unassisted backflip. And yet, I left AcroSports less excited than I expected (and also, unable to do a backflip). Here’s what happened:
In the first ten minutes of my lesson, I quickly warmed up on the trampoline, and then immediately headed to the floor to try some backflips on my own. On the fourth attempt, I landed on my feet, and then proceeded to also land the next four backflips on my feet. I was pretty pumped.
But then, something got in my head, and this happened…
Once I was spooked, my brain refused to let my body jump. It genuinely felt as if my feet were glued to the ground.
As hard as I tried, I didn’t have any more willpower left in the tank and couldn’t overcome the fear.
Interestingly, I thought rewatching these videos was going to get me even more bummed. But, I’m actually pleased to see that I’m at least getting all the way around.
In retrospect, I don’t think anything went wrong. Instead, I only had so much willpower (there are plenty of studies that show willpower is a finite resource) and I used up all this willpower fighting the backflip fear on my first ten or so attempts.
So, if I just keep practicing and fighting the fear, over time, I will need less and less willpower to commit to the backflip, which means I’ll become more consistent and confident.
I’m returning to AcroSports one last time on Tuesday, and I’m hoping that, with a recharged willpower tank, I can at least land a few more unassisted flips.
Read the next post. Read the previous post.
