Surrender.

Is this a dirty word to you? White flags? Giving up? Defeat? Or does it mean going with the flow?

Depending on how you answered, you’re either a Spinner or a Masher. Not a cyclist? That’s okay, because these concepts are what we apply to our lives, not just to exercise.

Let me explain:

Mashing is a method of pedaling at a low cadence (frequency of strokes). See that hill up ahead? KILL KILL KILL GO GO GO!!! Mashing takes muscle and burns energy at a high rate. You’re left feeling exhausted and your legs hurt. Not the way to finish the Tour de France.

Spinning is a method of pedaling with a high cadence. (Lance Armstrong is famous for this, and I hear he’s pretty good.) When you’re a spinner you let the road do the work for you. In other words, you step into the energy of what is already available to you and simply become part of the flow of movement. Easy! Takes less work, and it’s more fun.
So how does this apply to life?

Simple. Ask yourself whether you Work Really Hard, or whether you Let Life Happen. Hard work is great, but sometimes we make things harder for ourselves by trying to manage everything, trying to control what’s going on, instead of stepping into the flow of what is already present. That’s true surrender.
Eckhart Tolle wrote about surrender in The Power of Now:

Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life.

Doesn’t that sound nice? Peaceful? The trick, of course, is knowing what that flow of life is. But if we step back a bit and take stock, usually those things just end up becoming crystal clear without us having to do a thing.

So the next time you’re struggling with something in your life, ask yourself: am I a Spinner or a Masher? I guarantee you’ll have more fun as a Spinner.

[What? Me? Um, I'm learning to spin. See the photo? That's me (minus the thighs), at least that's the look on my face a lot of the time. I'm learning to relax more.]

[Actually that is Jan Ullrich, and he looks like that a LOT. Not a spinner.]