When I was a little girl it was so hard for me to learn how to ride a bike. I kept trying and trying to gain my balance, but I would always end up toppling over. However, every time that I had fallen, I got back up and tried again. No matter how many scrapes and bruises I got from that damn bike, I still did not stop trying.

Eventually I was able to gain my balance and ride that bike anywhere I wanted. However, for me, it was never about me having to get anywhere specific. It was not about me being able to ride a bike. It was about accomplishing something through hard work. It was about knowing that if I wanted to reach a destination I could because I persevered through a process of learning how to do so.

If you did not get it by now, that was a metaphor for life. Life is full of falls. Catching your balance is the hardest part of it all. It is not about how many times you fall, but the ability to be able to get back up once you have fallen. If you want to be able to change your life, the only person that is able to do that is you.

You are the driver of the bike that is life. The journey is not the road that you travel, the journey is being able to learn how to ride the bike, or in the literal sense, deal with life's troubles. If I decided to walk away the first time I fell off a bike I would never be able to ride one today. Instead, I got up, put myself back on the bike, and kept trying. Once I caught my balance a surge of self-accomplishment radiated throughout my body. I did it!

If we could learn how to deal with all of life's struggles in such a way, failure would not be seen as such a negative thing because it is not. Failure is the only way we can learn and grow as people. Without failure, there would be nothing to work for, nothing to gain, and nothing to accomplish in life.

Learning how to deal with life is the best way to grow and mature as a person. I did not sit down on the concrete and pout about how I could not ride the bike. Instead, I kept trying. You cannot sit and complain about something that you had never worked to change. There has to be action taken in order to gain desirable results.

So next time you fall, get up and dust yourself off. You have the choice whether you want to keep trying to learn how to ride or if you want to just walk away. Do you want to learn how to deal with life or do you want to give up whenever something gets to be too difficult? View all the scars you have as a reminder that you did not let hardship destroy you. You are still here, you are still alive, and you have the choice to keep moving on. Keep riding the bike!