Part of being a parent is not just teaching your children, but learning from them.  Here is one father's story of an important lesson he learned from his son.

My five-year-old son, Trevor, just concluded one of life's most critical rites of passage as he learned to ride his bike without training wheels. To fully comprehend just how amazing this feat was, you must first understand some things about Trevor.

From birth, Trevor has been the cautious type, rarely jumping into something before carefully studying and analyzing each of the potential outcomes. Highly organized and meticulous, he has personally selected matching clothes and dressed himself since he was three. He also bases most of his assumptions on Aristotelian logic gleaned from the world around him:  "Five year olds ride on two wheels, therefore when I'm five I will ride on two wheels." 

About six months before his fifth birthday, I unbolted the training wheels and asked Trevor to attempt the unthinkable (I know; I should have followed the logic and waited until he was five). No matter how hard we both tried, Trevor could not get over the fear of instability and panicked at the first sign of tipping over.  The training wheels were back on within a matter of minutes.

Six months rolled by, and on a whim on a recent weekend we decided to try again. However, this time I did something very different. Instead of teaching him how to ride, I decided to teach him how to fall. So, for ten minutes we practiced falling with the bike. I would hold onto back seat, gently push the bike, and declare, "Falling!" just before tipping the bike to one side. I taught him how to stick out his foot and catch himself without getting tangled in the bike and yet the greatest lesson was that Trevor began to realize that it didn't hurt so bad when the bike fell over.

Once we finished falling lessons, he mounted the bike and with minimal help from me took off. His initial stops were not pretty, but within a few minutes he was zinging down the sidewalk at full speed with an ear-to-ear smile.

Much can be learned from Trevor and his two-wheeled triumph. What if, as adults, we spent more time learning how to fall?  What if falling was a bit more acceptable?  Falling has certainly gotten a bad reputation over the past few years as we have witnessed a pantheon of CEO's, priests, and even Martha Stewart being brought to account because they "fell". I am not referring to accepting the type of falling that besets those driven by greed and deceit, but to failures which lead to higher levels of human growth and experience, like riding on two wheels.

Riding on two wheels signals accomplishment, high self-esteem, and newfound freedom. One can go much further, much faster, and is not limited to sidewalks when the training wheels are gone. If this experience is so wonderful, then why are we all caught up in risk-free behaviors? You know what I mean: cover yourself, have a good excuse, make sure someone else takes the fall, or worst yet, don't put risk falling at all. Further, in addition to avoiding mistakes, examining the failures of others has become a national obsession. Just watch some daytime TV, and you can witness failure after failure and will probably feel a bit better about yourself in the process.

Bottom Line: If you are the type who avoids taking risks and rarely attempts new things, then try learning to fall first.  Simulate the worst that can happen, and see how bad it hurts. If you can stand the pain, then take the wheels off. If you need a little motivation then close your eyes and imagine how silly it would look to see a bunch of adults riding with training wheels, clueless to the freedom they could be experiencing. And by the way, quell the desire to ridicule those who try and fail. Just imagine what would have happened if I had laughed at Trevor during his first major spill....