It's all in the mind

I rode my bike to the aquatic center to go lane swimming this afternoon. The ride is less than five kilometres, and there is ONE BIG HILL. The whole ride, I was wondering if I should scoot down this road or go down that trail to attempt to bypass the ONE BIG HILL. I spent a lot of time and mental energy pondering my route all associated with the assumption that the ONE BIG HILL would be, well, just awful to ride up. In the end, I took the shortest route (which is typically the best route, in a cyclist's mind) and came up to the ONE BIG HILL, and rode up with a teensie bit more effort exerted than going up a regular sized hill. At the top, I wasn't even breathing hard. All that mental energy spent for what? one big hill, that in the end, wasn't THAT BIG.

This lesson could be extended to other situations in my life where my mind spends a lot of time thinking some goal is going to be really difficult to pursue or complete, in terms of time, energy, money, whatever... And in the end, it's usually way less of a big deal than I made it out to be. I keep learning this lesson and then letting it slip by the wayside when thoughts of difficulties with the next goal come barreling in.