6.16.14

Breakfast - 2 blueberry poptarts
Lunch - 3 cookie butter rolls
Dinner - greek yogurt, honey and granola

Pain in the Neck

I love going on bike rides. It get it from my Dad.

Yesterday was Father’s Day and I know that if I had been back in Tampa with my family, the one thing my Dad would have wanted to do would have been to go on a “Family Bike Ride.” So instead I went on a bike ride here. The Father-Son-Bonding thing again.

It’s been a minute since I’ve enjoyed a nice bike ride. And I hate that because every time I go on a bike ride I remember how much I love it. The word is peaceful. Bike rides are peaceful. Why don’t I do this every weekend?

Today, though, I’m admittedly kind of sore. The bike I have is a stupid one. It’s a trendy hipster fixed gear bike that my friends talked me into getting before I lived in a place with hills. Hills and fixies don’t mix well. This bike also has drop handle bars (another stupid characteristic). Which means the position I have to ride in is a fairly low one. So if I want to see where I’m going at all I really have to bend my neck back to look up. Because of this, my neck is pretty stiff today.

And I like it.

I’m not like a masochist or anything. I just liked the reminder I got every time I turned to answer the phone today. A reminder that not only says, “Hey, you did stuff yesterday. Feel good about that.” but a reminder that says, “Look up, look forward.”

I used to ride my bike all the time. Miles and miles of training. My neck never used to get sore cause I had built up a tolerance I guess. But somewhere over the past couple of years I stopped riding my bike, I put my head down and quit looking ahead.

You miss a lot when you put your head down and quit looking ahead.

Sometimes thinking about the future is overwhelming and can bring about a good bit of anxiety. Which is why it's so easy to put your head down, ignore the inevitability of certain responsibilities and avoid any potential "pain in the neck." But you miss the opportunity to really build your future and make it what you want it to be. If you keep your head down the world is going to pass you by whether you want it to or not. But if you look up, you'll suffer a little bit of stiffness, but you'll also get the chance to make some really great decisions.

Looking up and looking forward isn't about dreams and goals, it's about facing life head on and making any adjustments necessary to get to where you want to go.

I came to an abrupt fork in the road yesterday on my ride. If my head had been down I probably would have missed it. I'll be honest, neither path looked to be exceptionally different. But for me, I was just glad to have the opportunity to make a decision. Here's a moment where I get to choose my path; my future. Where do I want to go?

There's a little bit of pain in my neck, but I'm looking up and I'm looking forward... let's do this thing