Try new things no matter when

What learning to ride a bicycle at 24 taught me about life, opportunities and trying new things.

When you’re young you basically have no fear and are very curious and that makes it the perfect time to learn things. Especially physical things like riding a bike or a skateboard or playing an instrument. You are still growing and along with your body, your reflexes are also still evolving. Once you hit your twenties and your body starts to think that growth is over, a lot of people also lose the eagerness to try new things.

I must admit that that was my case too. When I was young I didn't get to learn to ride a bike and in my twenties I forgot about it and thought I didn't actually need it. I got side tracked by the things I “should be doing” at that age and didn't give a second thought to the things I could be doing, new and fun things.

So I missed out on a lot of stuff, but let’s get back to the story at hand, finally learning to ride a bike at 24 and what I learnt from it.

I didn't know how to ride a bicycle and to many of my friends that seemed strange. “Everybody knows how to ride a bike”, they used to tell me. I actually didn't feel the need for a bike and life went on pretty well on without this particular skill.

Until one summer holiday when I was at the seaside, staying in a house on a cul-de-sac with virtually no traffic, the perfect place to learn how to ride a bike. It was a sunny day and the people I was with all wanted to go ride bikes on the beach and I would have had to stay home alone. Being faced with this sad situation I finaly snapped and said “Let me try this, it can’t be that hard” and indeed it turned out that it wasn’t. A couple of hours later I could ride along well enough to follow my friends to the beach. A day later I could finally say that I now knew how to ride a bike. I had finally learned to ride a bike at 24.

It might not seem a big thing and when you look at it from the outside it isn't, but for me it meant a completely different thing. After learning to ride and realizing I liked it very much I also realized that by not trying things you cannot really ever know if you like it or at least be sure that you are not good at it. For me, it had just dawned that until the age of 24 I might have been good or not good at a lot of things but because I never really tried them I didn't know and what I was really doing was just guessing what I could and could not do. I was guessing at my limits and at what I could have been in life.

And basically that would be the gist of it, not really about trying things because they are fun or look cool, but because if you don’t try things you will never know what you can or cannot do. Like I did, you might miss something that you would like or could really make you feel good or a skill that would dictate your future career.

I can now say that riding my bike is very relaxing for me and going for a ride on the weekend is one of my favorite activities.

This post is actually not about me learning to ride a bike at 24, but about the realization that if I do not try out the things that pass through my head, be those things ideas, actions or activities, I will never know my true abilities, my limits and the things that I like or don’t like.

Basically, my new resolution is that I will not listen to people telling me that I cannot do that thing or the other. I will always go forth and try it out, I may fail and I can quite guarantee that I will fail at a lot of things, but I might discover other things that I am good at and that I really like.

So basically, try out new things as often as possible because through these experiences you will not only find out what you like and are good at, but also you will enrich your life and discover new things about yourself.

I don’t know who said it but I have always liked the saying: “Try until you succeed.”

So, after reading this post, go out and try new things, you might fail but keep in mind that when you succeed that feeling will stay with you forever. You only need to succeed once.