by Mel Blackwood @troubleon8wheels
Thirty days ago, I committed to writing a blog post every day, where I show up fully as my authentic self to share my values and beliefs. Sometimes, I’ve even shared how I learned more about life through the journey I’ve taken through roller skating!
I’ve found the writing clarifying. Through this process, I’ve crystallised my thoughts around who RGG are serving. We are women, (or marginalised in some way), anxious that we are always falling short of perfection, worried about being vulnerable in public. We don’t like to let strangers see us being rubbish at something, as we expect ourselves to find new things easy and neat. We have found many things in life straightforward to grasp, so secretly expect to be immediately good at something new. We definitely never the start of our roller skate journey to be recorded and shared publicly!
Having travelled to Canada and back, it seems folks starting their roller skate journey have similar thoughts on both sides of the Atlantic. Lacking confidence in ourselves and our ability, we think we are clumsy, have negative self-talk and wonder why we even have a yearning to try roller skating as we are surely too old…
It’s been challenging. I realised after committing to do the writing, that this month, of all months, would be really difficult! (There were additional events, staffing issues and I was in a different time zone for part of the month). I did it anyway, because there is no ‘perfect’ time to do anything. The idea of planning things to perfection is a myth. We will never have enough of anything – time, money or patience – we need to realise that we are enough now. Our best is enough. My showing up to write some words, sometimes, whatever drips across the page in 20 minutes, is enough. Showing up to roller skate class once a month or whenever we can, is enough.
Thank you for the messages, comments and kind words from people who said this blog has been helpful. You’ve told me it lifts you, makes you laugh and you can see yourself in my words. I’m truly flattered, as it is just my story.
I’ve put the essence of how we need to reframe our thoughts into our Learn to Roller Skate course. Talking about how we need to give ourselves permission for the smallest steps is something we are not used to doing. It’s good to hear it out loud and I’m happy to give you that permission and more. Explain why it is so tough to learn this activity as an adult as well as give you the fundamental skills you need to start, stop, fall and more. Spend time building a solid foundation and you will be able to skate anywhere with confidence, knowing you can control your wheels.
The series of five videos is £90 and is designed to be re-visited as your body builds new muscles to make those movements easier. Only once your body knows without conscious thought can you continue to the next step.
This is the last day of consecutive posts – I’m sure some of you will be relieved that I won’t be dropping into your inbox every day – but I’m energised and ready to create more content, so I’ll be back!
If you've been thinking about starting your roller skate journey, I hope you now have the courage to get rolling.
Stay safe until we skate,
Mel xo
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