Turned Up by Mike Kinney

Imagine recovering from a life-threatening medical emergency and wondering whether you will ever ride a bicycle again. Now imagine deciding that your next major challenge will be riding the complete route of the Tour de France. That is the distance between where Mark Phillips found himself three years ago and the challenge he eventually chose. It would be easy to look at that story and assume he must possess some extraordinary level of confidence. Maybe. But I doubt complete confidence arrived first. It rarely does. We often believe people begin ambitious comebacks because they already know they can succeed. Most of the time, they begin because they are willing to find out. That is an important distinction. Waiting until you feel completely confident creates an impossible requirement. You are asking yourself to possess evidence before you have taken the actions that will produce it. Confidence usually comes afterward. After the first training session. After the first diffi...