My 5 year old son Ryan learned to ride his bike without training wheels this past weekend. I am not sure if he will remember the moment, but it is one that my wife Suzanne and I will never forget.

The morning of the big event I asked Ryan, “Is today the day you are ready to take the training wheels off of your bike?” His reply was “Yeah, I think so, I am five-and-a-half now.” After that reply he then followed up with a series of questions.

“Dad, what if I fall down?”

I answered, “Ryan, if you fall that’s okay because we all fall down when we try something new, the important thing is to get back up and try it again.”

“Will you and mom be behind me?” he asked.

“Yes, we will be right behind you but at some point we will have to let you go and you have to trust that you will find your balance.”

“How fast will I be able to go?” he said.

“You will want to take it slow at first but as you get more confident and more experience you can go as fast as you want.”

As we watched him pedal down the driveway with his new found freedom I realized that finding your balance in life is not always easy and you can learn a lot from teaching a little boy how to find it on a bicycle for the first time.

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