It seems like we hardly talk anymore, you and I. Sure, every day I and the rest of the Asphalt & Rubber crew bring you stories to help fuel your motolust, but aside from the snarky messages I leave in the comments section, we haven’t really been getting enough “us time”, so to speak.
I want to change that, at least intermittently, on these doldrum Sundays, with a column that really has nothing to do with motorcycles…at least not directly.
This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now this year, but I just didn’t get around to starting because either I thought I was too busy, or I didn’t have a subject at-hand to explore, or I dunno…derringers.
Now as I begin planning what’s ahead for A&R in 2015, I see the same problem occurring: projects have long languished on my to-do list, and I keep saying “yeah, we should do that…” with no results in sight.
The issue is one of impulse, that moment of force that pulls you from the warm spot on the couch and back to the Bat Cave again. The issue is one of “saying yes”, ideally with reckless abandon.
Saying yes is less of an action, and more of state of mind. In the colloquial, it could probably be expanded to “f-it it, sure why not?” – where the sayer throws caution to the wind and plunges into something, sometimes literally.
The biggest limits we have in life are the ones we place on ourselves. We say something isn’t possible at all, or we say that it is something that we can’t do ourselves. Sometimes we say that we don’t have the time, or that we don’t have the resources. In all these instances we are essentially just saying “no” instead of saying “yes”.
As motorcyclists, we should intrinsically understand this principle, because at some point in time we had to defy the naysayers (including the ones in our own heads) to take on the task of learning how to ride a motorcycle, and embracing the two-wheeled lifestyle.
We said yes to this vehicle that is prone to tipping over, requires safety equipment all over our body, and is basically a petrol-powered death rocket that fuels the neuroscience industrial complex. That’s a big yes to commit to, dear reader.
Asphalt & Rubber came about because of me saying yes, as well. I’m an introvert…and a dyslexic, so the last thing I would want to do in my professional life was to show a group of anonymous strangers on the internet my written words. I’m thankful I that I didn’t listen to my personal doubts though, as the past six years have been highly rewarding, though not entirely easy.
I say fuck easy, though.
Saying yes gets us out of our routines. It forces us out of our comfort zones, into the realms of somethings new, and there is tremendous value in that.
We experience new pieces of life. We take new adventures. We find ourselves in over our heads — and often find ourselves treading water moments later. We grow by saying yes.
In the next few months A&R will be rolling out somethings I’ve been putting off for some time now — some projects that have succumbed to the pitfalls of “no”.
Like the first time you twisted the throttle of a motorcycle, there’s something slightly intimidating about that. But to hell with it, we have been doing the same thing for too long around here, and it’s time to mix it up again.
I hope you too will say “yes” to whatever project, move, undertaking, goal, trip, jump, next-step, voyage, Folsom Street Parade, hobby, purchase, enterprise, or undertaking you’ve been saying “no” to these past few weeks, months, or even years as well. Good things might come from it.
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