Michelle Khare

Some people call this beginner's luck, but I think it's much more than that.

Amateurs often see progress faster than professionals in this rapid adaptation phase.

We have the willingness to ask questions, to look silly trying, to take risks.

So it's not luck.

I think it's an amateur's mindset, knowing there's only room for improvement.

And this feels great until we hit a plateau.

Learning starts to feel like work.

We have a little bit of experience, so we start self-judging as we try.

And many of us give up here.

But if we could find a way to stay in that amateur's mindset, how much further could we go?

With cycling, I had somehow found a way to stay in that headspace, even as I got better.

And if you fast-forward two years later, I decided to go to nationals on a whim for fun as an average-ranked racer.

During the final event, I decided to take a big risk and sprint ahead of the group.

But because nobody was threatened by me, they assumed I would burn out and fall back in with everyone else.

But 20 minutes later, to everyone's surprise, including my own, I ended up winning.

And it was the first time I had seen success or won something by genuinely just having fun.

So I thought to myself, how much of life had I been missing out on because of fear?

Could a daredevil be developed?

So I wrote out all of my fears on a whiteboard and connected each to a unique circumstance that would force me to address it.

I started posting my adventures online as a way to hold myself accountable.