Until they are not! I found myself struggling to get up a hill, while she merrily blasted off into the distance. She eventually looked back and I was more than 2km behind.
We went and bought me an electric bike the very next day.
As a motivational speaker, I have travelled around the world many times and have spent many hours sleeping on planes and staying in hotels.
I was once engaged by an organisation that flew me 10 hours to Perth to speak for 15 minutes.
My last overseas speaking engagement was in Vancouver, Canada, pre-Covid days. That entailed a 14-hour plane trip to speak for 45 minutes.
Embracing change in my professional speaking business has meant doing keynote presentations online to organisations overseas.
A year ago, we invested in a professional studio office to cater for those online engagements.
However, the decision to change our office a year ago is not the one that has ensured our continued success through these changing business times.
That decision happened seven years ago when we decided to diversify my speaking business.
At that time we delved into the tourism business, and I also became a director on governance boards.
This meant retraining through Institute of Director programmes and being invited to sit on various boards.
This transition culminated in me putting myself forward as a Lakes District Health Board candidate and, thanks to the community support, I was very humbled to be elected to that board.
Facing change can often mean retraining ourselves.
It can also mean putting ourselves out there and letting others judge our worth, and that can be a scary thing.
Many years ago, when I started my business, I attended a training programme and the presenter told us that anyone can speak. Anyone can speak on any topic.
They can speak at any time to almost any audience.
"We call that a hobby," they said.
"However, if you want to be a professional speaker then you have to be a good-enough speaker for people to pay you to speak and you have to be good enough to be invited to speak."
Facing change can mean asking ourselves if we are in fact good enough at what we do.
The past two years have seen many huge changes take place in many areas.
International tourism and conferences have stopped.
There is a huge change in our standard of living with hiked prices in food and petrol due to overseas circumstances such as the Ukraine-Russia war that are out of our control.
Interest rates are picking up and school children are not sure if they will be at school or at home.
The health system is heaving from the stress of the Omicron variant and board meetings are being held remotely on Zoom.
There is no lockdown in place, but the streets are empty anyway.
Change has arrived at our front doors and is knocking louder every day. So how are you embracing change?
I would like to humbly offer a few tips that I have learnt during these challenging, changing times.
Firstly, I had to determine what I could or could not control. I could not speak overseas any more so I focused on other parts of our businesses that I could control.
What can you control?
Secondly, I realised that I had to look after myself. That starts with me getting up every morning and making my bed.
At least I get one thing done that day! I also look after myself through exercise, diet, praying, being with people in my bubble and just chilling out when I need to.
I have water nearby that I spend a lot of time in. How are you looking after yourself?
Other things such as retraining, planning, rewriting your story, reading, identifying what's important to you, and maintaining a level of normality and routine, being grateful and staying in the moment also help.
Things take time and time takes things, so I encourage you to choose wisely what you spend your time and energy on.
Myself? I am still trying to keep up with my wife on her electric bike. I think I should have bought the even-faster model. Enjoy your change, bike or no bike.
• Ngahihi o te ra Bidois is an international keynote speaker, businessman, author, husband, father and MBA. A Maori boy from Awahou. See www.ngahibidois.com
