I can't ride a fudging bike!

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“I can’t ride a fu****g bike” Roy Kent screams at Jamie Tartt.

“My grandad was supposed to teach me and never did.”

His rage is palpable, as always, and you can feel his fury, grief and embarrassment.

I can ride a bike, bit scared to go fast downhill though so the brakes burn the rubber when I hit anything above 10 miles an hour. It’s far from a delightful “weeeeeeeee” it’s more a sharp terrified “Ahhhhhhhhhhh”

Learning to do something that you should have as a young adult or child can play havoc with your emotions. But learning anything new, whatever it is, invariably takes the same 4 development stages. Sometimes you whizz through barely noticing, other times you get stuck.

Like the time I thought I could put together a garden trug thingy on wheels, a bit like a wheelbarrow but 4 wheels. I hit D2 pretty quickly. I was D2’ing at high volume in my kitchen wondering if 11am was too early for gin as I screamed in fury at the nonsensical instructions.

D1

Development level 1, is where you’re keen to give something a go. You don’t know much about it, maybe a little, but you’re up for it. You need a guide to tell & show you what to do. In steps that suit you. Do this, then do that, if this goes a bit weird don’t worry just do that to resolve it. And a well done or two for smiles all round. You can learn with a teacher, you can read something or you can watch something. That’s why YouTube is so brilliant. A how to assemble a Fuxtec (yes really) trolley video is desperately needed by the way! And yes I emailed the company.

D2

The doubt, the upset, the frustration kicks in. If it’s anything to do with allen keys I’m going to need my guide to continue to show me what to do, whilst being really understanding of how I feel about it. Loads of don’t worries you’ll get it, yes they are stupid instructions, use this instead that will work etc. Roy Kent threw his bike in frustration. D2 hit him hard as his ego mocked his inability to do something so simple.

Jamie, was a great guide, he gave him instructions, he understood and gave lots of encouragement to his archrival. It was a beautiful blossoming of their friendship rooted in feelings of childhood family trauma and realising they were more alike than not.

In a few minutes Roy was wobbling along, D3’ing now! He still needed a bit of TLC but he was getting it. And by the time they’d reached the windmill he was loving it.

D3

A lovely stage when you realise you’re doing it. You still need a bit of help; answers like why is this curdling, how do I stop this falling off and how do I stop the bleeding?

If you keep trying to learn something on your own, something that doesn’t come naturally to you, budgeting, baking or bike riding, you’ll D2 fast and hard. And you’ll stay there. Sobbing over a spreadsheet (been there) drowning under a tsunami of paperwork and a husbands bemused “OMG who’s died?” remark and you’ll soon pack up, never to return.

Managing your money, from income in to last penny out, can be complicated. When you’re stuck inside your own head and can’t figure it out you can feel pretty stupid. Please don’t. That’s what I do. I am your guide, helping you from D1 to D4.

So in order to move through D3, you will probably have to accept a few failures en route. Your vicky sponge might sink in the middle so you google that specific question so the next one doesn’t. But you are still learning.

D4

Voila! You know what to do now. You can do it. Practice makes progress but you can absolutely do the thing woo hoo! Development from here means next level stuff, the basics are down and you can move beyond where you are. Feels bloody great doesn’t it? From vicky sponges to wedding cakes? From learning to ride a bike to the Tour de France? From budgeting and planning to saving and investing. Getting on the front foot with managing your money, being debt free, feeling on top of it all, is joyful. A massive exhale, shoulders drop and you smile.

If it’s managing your money, day to day, month to month, year to year, I am your guide. If you are a shiny new beginner or a furious and disillusioned learner I WILL gladly look after you.

When you’re D4’ing you can move on to working with a great financial advisor. Make sure they are FCA regulated, always regulated I don’t mean Tony down the pub who knows e v e r y t h i n g.

You can build wealth only on top of strong foundations.

Are you scared of learning to manage your money or neck deep in procrastination?

I’m really nosy, I’d love to know what stories you’ve got about learning something new

Comment away my friend…

And if you’d love to talk to me more about my mentoring services you can book a complimentary 20 minute chat. Just to see if we fit together and that I have the skills you need for me to guide you to your solution. To help you to transform.

If we don’t we’ll part as friends. If we do, an hours session with a toolkit is £65.

20 minutes for you

Until next time