Not too long ago, I learned to ride a bicycle with no hands. There were several pieces of learning that had to all fall into place, but the most important was: “Accelerate into the balance point.”
What does that mean? It means that, over time, I figured out that letting go of the handlebars was easiest when I was on a gentle slope downward. That slope would allow the bicycle to naturally accelerate. Without that acceleration, I couldn’t let go of the handlebars. I couldn’t get to a balance point.
Remember when you first learned to ride a bike? It would wobble, wobble, wobble and your dad (or mom) would yell “keep going!” or “Pedal!” The bike would wobble til it didn’t. You accelerated into the balance point. Once you were able to balance—the rest seemed easy. And once you got to the balance point, you could do all sorts of things. Slow down, make turns, stop suddenly. Ride with no hands. But you had to get to that balance point first, or none of that was possible.
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Lately this has become my new favorite metaphor. Why? It gives me a framework for solving problems that has a great many applications. You can easily imagine some real life applications that *literally* use acceleration to get to the balance point. An airplane as it’s taking off for example. Merging onto a highway. The set up for a fancy dance move. A skateboard trick. All of those accelerate into the balance point. The plane becomes aloft. The dancer spins. The skateboarder has that moment of grace. The grace is the balance point.
But those are literal examples—not using the metaphor and applying it to other situations.
Here are three:
- A business growing to the next level. It’s easy to maintain a business that is at its balance point. More money is coming in than is going out. It has financial equilibrium. But then you want to grow. And that requires change. And change is hard, because you have to figure some new stuff out. New products, or people, or systems or ways of working. Resistance to that change stops the acceleration needed to get to that next level. Thinking about how to accelerate into growth is a different kind of mindset that just might get you there.
- A new relationship. You might just have a hundred first dates. For one reason or another they fizzle out. The fizzling out is a slowing things down. Why not try to accelerate into it? Don’t push the other person into something they don’t want—ever—but think to yourself “What would a really great relationship with this person look like?” And then take actual actions to make it happen. If you can’t even imagine a really great relationship with that person, then, yeah, maybe call it off and find another first date.
- Personal development. Think of the effort it takes to learn something new. To learn a new language, or play an instrument, or learn stand-up comedy, or sing, or learn to code. It doesn’t just take effort, it takes sustained effort. And what is that point right before you get fluent in a language, or play the piano in public, or learn a new technology? You often have a reason for the need to accelerate—you are visiting or living in a foreign country, or you have a recital coming up, or have to learn the technology for your job. But understanding that the acceleration can take place even without those outside events as catalysts can help you get there.
I love to learn how to learn. And for me, a concept I can use as a framework to expand the way I think is always helpful.
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Photo: Getty Embed
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Also by Lisa Hickey
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