You’re going to fall

Today we took my 5-year-old boy out to try riding his bike without his training wheels for the first time and as I pushed him along and then let go of the bike, he of course didn’t go riding straight off into the sunset. He expects everything to go perfectly and gets loudly upset when it doesn’t. I told him something that I hoped would help: “You’re going to fall. Everyone falls.” I told him to not worry about it and just keep going.   

Whenever you see a surfer riding a big wave successfully, you can bet that they have also fallen riding waves that big. There’s just no way around it. And that’s how you learn. 

So just in case no one’s told you recently: You’re going to fall. Don’t worry about it. Just get up, learn something, and keep going.