Each of us
are given
only one life.
Live yours.
Too many people don’t -at least not to the extent they could. For everyone who would live bigger, live better and would find for themselves a more meaningful, exiting, engaging existence; let me propose the bicycle.
It is a travesty that anyone would spend much of their life without one. Not that cycling is the secret to happiness. But it is a time-tested and life-proven approach to being happier. Since it is such a simple escape, with little more required than to simply sit down and move the pedals, I heartily recommend cycling to everyone I meet.
Years ago, it was popular for motorcyclists to say, “You never see a motorcycle parked outside of a psychologist’s office.” So, one day I bounced this idea off of a psychologist I know and it made him laugh. But then he became a little serious, the look on his face went from smiling to contemplative and he said, “You know what? That’s right, I have never seen a motorcycle parked outside my office.” Then we took the idea a bit further and realized that there is something else we had ever noticed outside of a psychologist’s office; a bike rack.
Now, I don’t have any meticulously developed scientific theories on how riding x number of miles over some certain distance with any specific frequency, will yield a carefree life. But I will say that comparing all of the cyclists that I know, with all the people I know who are not cyclists; the former are happier.
Want a great place to examine your life? On a bike. A life spent cycling, provides plenty of self-examination time. And sorting out the existential dilemma from a bike saddle at 20 MPH is a pretty effective way to make sense of it all. Life by bike is simply better.
Although a congested parking lot is daunting, a full bike rack is inspirational. While driving to the store is a chore, biking to the store is just plain fun. An hour on the treadmill? Boring. An hour ripping through the woods on knobby tires? Exiting. And by the time the ride is over, life tends to make a lot more sense.
Jumping on a bike is a great way to throw a rotten day out the window. It lets us shed worries, release the day’s tensions and be happy for a while. When viewed from the bicycle handlebar, the world simply looks better. Go ahead throw a leg over your bike and you’ll see what I mean.
And I’ll see you out there,
Rob, The Bike Guy