As a cyclist, I hate traffic lights. More specifically, I hate the moment when the light goes from green to orange. In this moment, there’s this grey zone where it’s not clear whether you should speed up to make the light, or slow down to a stop. This uncertainty is one of my biggest dreads, and hesitating in this moment has led me nearly getting run over multiple times, or braking to an abrupt stop.

One day, I was riding my bike and realised that for most of the times I was slowing down for a red light, I could’ve easily made it if I sped up. From that moment, I told myself I would try to make the orange light every time if I was reasonably close enough. This meant I would accelerate towards green lights as much as possible, and once past a certain “point of no return”, I just maintained a high speed until I got through.

The most interesting thing about this experiment was the shift in mentality in other areas of life. There are many “orange lights” in our day-to-day experience. These are moments where you have made progress in an area, like applying for a job, finding a romantic partner or finishing a project, but there is a final hurdle waiting to be overcome. And the annoying thing is, the hurdle is time-sensitive.

If you wait too long to send a job application, the recruitment period will be over. If you wait too long to ask your love interest out, the other person may have lost interest in you. If you procrastinate on a project, you face a criticism from your boss or your own self-talk.

You have a choice in these moments. Speed up and chase for the green light, not letting the opportunity pass, or slow down in the face of a potential rejection. Make it or wait. What I’ve found is that meeting an orange light and accelerating through it through the finish line is the best feeling ever. You feel an amazing breeze against your face, and the world around you stops as cars wait for their turn to go. In that moment, you feel like the world is watching you.

And braking last minute at the red traffic light, knowing you could’ve made it if you put in just a little more effort, is terribly heartbreaking.