Changing self-defeating behaviors takes a lot of work

What a joy it is to ride my bike around the neighborhood when the weather is nice, rather than jumping in a car for short hops.

My biker son, Mike, teases me because my bike is one of those "sit properly" bikes like the witch rode in "The Wizard of Oz" — but without the basket.

Actually I would like a basket, and I don't mind being teased because it sure is a comfy ride.

I was zooming along one day on a sidewalk on said bike (with my helmet on of course) when just ahead a car came rushing out of a parking lot.

Fortunately the driver saw me and stopped and I rode right past.

But in my panic, instead of pulling the hand brakes, my feet were pushing non-existent foot brakes, the kind I learned to use when riding a bike on all those years ago.

I'm not even sure bikes had handbrakes back when I was learning to ride, and I had instinctively reverted to my past.

Proof positive I guess that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

It was scary — not only could I have collided with the car but also in my panic I didn't think clearly — I wasn't present in the moment. I was daydreaming.

Daydreaming is good when writing or planning or any number of other times, but not when riding a bike.

In other words, I "choked."

Choking happens to all of us in all sorts of situations, but it is especially evident when we are stressed in athletic endeavors.

It involves procedural memory — that is our memory for how to do things.

It is the reason we can drive a car or fly an airplane and talk because we have learned so well how to do the one task that we can then perform another.

If you watched the British Open you saw Phil Mickelson "choke" when he missed an easy putt. It can happen to anyone under pressure, and usually on that level of play the winner is the one who chokes the least.