20 Things Mountain Biking Teaches You About Life

I picked this up from the University of Toronto Mountain Bike Team's website. I thought it was pretty poignant, so I'll do my part to spread it around.

Good writers have often used sport as a metaphor for life: the lessons of the playing field or arena applied to daily living. If Norman Mailer (boxing), William Kennedy (baseball) and John Irving (wrestling) had spent time on a mountain bike, they would have learned that:

20. Boldness pays
19. Desperation breeds mistakes
18. The hardest parts are also the loneliest
17. There's fresh horse flop in the trail ahead
16. Balance is first among the virtues; momentum is second
15. Success requires confidence, but cockiness invites failure
14. Sometimes, the best way past an obstacle is straight through it
13. Some people get lucky at parts; nobody gets lucky at everything
12. It's all about the being and the going, not the having and the arriving
11. At each intersection, there's the easy way and the hard, rewarding way
10. It's tempting to focus on the immediate problem to the exclusion of the big picture
9. The thing that nails you is the one you don't see coming
8. It's worth stopping for a breather to see where you are
7. Thousands of tiny decisions shape the trip
6. The fun starts when you push the limits
5. You can get hurt, heal and go again
4. Ups are followed by downs
3. Practice makes you better
2. No quitting allowed
1. Love hurts (but don't let that stop you from falling in love).