Sunday, July 27, 2014

I need a Central Park.

All the time your hear people talking about a good work-life balance. How exactly do you achieve that work-life balance? The more I focus on one part of my life the more another is neglected. This past week I re-listened to Start by Jon Acuff. It is such a great book. In his book Jon gives great advice on this topic. One of the things that he talks about is how he took a vacation and didn't do what he normally does on vacation, like reading self-help books and coming up with new ideas. This vacation he read non-fiction books, and built sandcastles with his kids. He came home full of life. When telling his friend about how great it was, his friend ask "How do you do this next week?".  Essentially, how do you take a break from all the demands and enjoy life without being on vacation? His friend Al Andrews told him, "You need to build your own Central Park". What a great analogy. New York City has a massive park in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the city. A place where people can go to get away. That is what we need in our own lives, 10-15-30 minutes, each day that is dedicated to enjoying life and not accomplishing tasks. Time to just enjoy being alive. 

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Motorcycles are so much FUN!


I ride a motorcycle, and it is so much fun. It's funny to me that my wife has so many people ask her if she is ok with it, and so many of those same people won't allow their husband to ride a motorcycle. Yes, riding a motorcycle does have it's risks. So does driving a car. And in a car you can easily get a false sense of security because all the metal you are surrounded by and the number of airbags your car has. If you practice and ride smart it isn't scary like so many people think it is. I have been in one accident on my motorcycle. It happened when I was 18 and thought that everyone else on the road watched out for all other vehicles on the road, including motorcycles. A lady rolled through a stop sign and I hit the side of her car. Thankfully I wasn't injured. 

Today I saw some good reminders as to where some people get crazy ideas about motorcycles being so scary. Today in the news is a story of a motorcyclist that tried to pass a car and when he changed lanes he saw a truck coming head on toward him. He tried to go in-between the truck that was coming at him and the car that he was trying to pass. I wasn't there and can't judge. I can say, "know your surroundings". On a motorcycle you should always be aware of your surrounds and what the other vehicles around you are doing, I learned this from first hand experience. 

Also today, I took my wife and kids for ice cream. When we were driving home from Blazen Burgers I witnessed an unsafe motorcyclist. We pulled up to a red light and when the light went green a guy on a motorcycle went down the dotted white line in-between my vehicle and the car next to me and passed us in the intersection. It is guys that ride like that that give all of the motorcyclists a bad name.  

If you are new to riding and would like to get a motorcycle and start riding I would recommend that you take a motorcycle safety course like STAR. Even if you are experienced you can benefit from a course like this

To all of you that ride like idiots on public streets, stop it. Don't ruin what so many of us enjoy. 
Feel free to go crazy on private roads and race tracks. 
-Thank You-