First it was IPWR, then it was Basil, then TCR for a while, and now it’s back to being IPWR!
The messages I was sending weren’t good:
“Shit” – 5:04pm
“My charger is dead” – 5:04pm
“Shit” – 5:04pm
“There’s no way I’m getting there by Saturday” – 5:05pm
“I need to get to grenoblw now” – 5:05pm
“Fuck. Bolt dead.” – 5:07pm
Yes, you read that right. I really spelt Grenoble “grenoblw”. But just at that moment things were seeming pretty tough, so please, cut me some slack… Continue reading “Day 12: The Day of Bad Language (Sorry)”
I really enjoy writing these blog posts. I spoke to someone a while ago who said he would never write a blog, because he is riding for himself rather than to win approval of a whole lot of people he has never met, so there is no point writing about it afterwards. I disagree completely. For a start, the blog has nothing to do with a whole lot of people, there aren’t that many of you who read it! Secondly, writing the blog lets me relive the ride but without the pain, cold, heat, wind and rain, so I just get the enjoyment which brings a whole lot of new memories. Not all of them make it into these posts because (I admit it) I would like to keep the readers I do have but the people I see every day get to hear little extra details and stories as I relive it all and remember them. And the third point is that I love getting feedback on them. Some of it comes in comments (check how quick this post has been Anthony, less than a week!) and some through other mediums. From my last post I specifically got a lot of feedback about my variety of optimism. Some of it was even good, but my favourite bit came from one of my favourite people in the whole world, who told me that it is known in academic literature as “mental contrasting with implementation intentions”. I love it. Now on with the story, which is about to take a terrible twist!
Continue reading “Day 11: The day my victory was snatched from me!”
Many people, when they hear of an idea that they like, respond by saying how good the idea is, and how much they like it. Not me. That isn’t the way my mind works. If you suggest an idea that I really like, my immediate reaction will be to list every single hurdle, issue, danger, obstacle or difficulty that I can think of.
It’s a response that makes a lot of people think I’m a pessimist, and I can sort of understand why they think that, but they’re really missing the point all together. I’m not listing the obstacles to try and convince you that it won’t work, I’m listing them so that together we can make sure it does work. I might even already have a solution for some of the obstacles I list, but unless I’m absolutely sure that my solution is a cracker I’ll still list the obstacle without mentioning my solution, because you may well come up with something much better if I just give you a few moments to think about it yourself. Basically, if I start telling you the problems with an idea it means that I think we can make it work, not that we can’t. If I think it can’t work, I will just say “nah, won’t work” and move on to something else. So it isn’t pessimism, it’s optimism, but an optimism that thinks the best chances of success come from examining all of the possibilities for failure (and then trying to make sure that they don’t happen).
What that means though, is that I always look at the possibilities of failure.