Your First Rodeo.

The first time you learn to cycle, you're part excited, part terrified. As you get on the seat and begin to pedal, you're mostly terrified for good reason. Because only when you start do you realize just how difficult it is.

A few days later, the fear fades. You’re still wobbly, but you’ve found your balance.

And once we get the hang of things, confidence quickly turns into overconfidence.
Overconfidence arrives before competence.

That’s fine as long as it stays within safe boundaries. Cycling fast in your own driveway or compound? Acceptable. The risk is manageable. But taking that same rusty confidence onto busy roads? That’s where the trouble starts. One wrong move, and you might just get pushed back down into the fear hole.

We often abandon deliberate practice the moment we see progress.

But practice isn’t the same as just doing the thing. When you’re practicing, you’re in a different mindset. You become more vigilant and less overconfident.

It’s about approaching each attempt with intention, attention, and a willingness to feel uncomfortable, even if it means seeming incompetent around others.

When you want to become like someone, you study their life. Their way of doing things, their routines, their habits, all of it. You can't possibly grasp it all in a day or two. You have to expose yourself to their world repeatedly to notice the finer details. Those finer details shape who they are and who you want to become.

Mastery isn't achieved through occasional effort.

The question isn’t whether you can do it.
It is whether you’ll keep practicing after you think you can.

A good rule for when you're learning something new: Perform small in public. Train big in private.