The Point Of Hesitation

The Point Of Hesitation

Training Insights

The crux point that we will all come to is when we have to decide whether we are going to accept or resist.

I remember Toby Hawk, the world champion skateboarder, saying he came to the point in his career where he had to make a conscious refusal of what was considered impossible. Then, before each attempt to keep his mind free of the idea that he couldn’t do it. Not to even think that he could, just to have the ram space free for the attempt.

We all reach the point of hesitation.

There are many instances where we rub up against the discomfort of doubt. You are going to feel and sense your previous limits and boundaries being tested.

This is not only normal, it is a requirement, literally your growth in action. I’m not going to suggest that the point of hesitation isn’t going to come with a voice, it most certainly will.

The only question to be answered is; are you going to believe the voice of dissent in you? If you are going to move beyond that point, there is a decision to be made; go for comfort or go for growth.

If you are going to choose the latter, you are going to have to ignore that voice of dissent, up until the point where it accepts the challenge, and in time it will.

First, however, it is going to bring you to the precipice, to the hesitation point, and you are going to have to allow yourself to feel that or the voice will be stronger than your action.

Action without the full acceptance of what you are feeling is weak and brittle, a type of bravado that sounds like acceptance of the challenge, but isn’t.

a man riding a bike in a parking lot
Photo by Oleg Kukharuk / Unsplash

The true acceptance doesn’t happen out in the open, it happens in your own heart and mind, hidden away where no one can see it.

That battle you have to fight on your own. The way to win that battle is to go right down the centre of it, feel it all, accept it all, then and only then, will you make your run at the challenge with an open heart and mind.

That’s real power. Then, when the point of hesitation comes, you can know that you are moving into growth rather than doubt.

When you see fire in an athlete's face, what you are really looking at is full acceptance and full commitment.

You can only access that through the fire of your own discovery as an athlete. Ultimately, the win takes place inside long before it manifests on the outside.

Gilesy