I have recently taken up biking. I am not one of those guys that puts on the fancy cycling outfits or spends an exorbitant amount of money on a bicycle but, after being sick for a few weeks, the ten-year-old in me has been wishing to get out and see the neighborhood. I pulled the old bike down from the rack in the garage, filled the tires and lubed the chain. I checked the seat to make sure it was at the right height; checked the brakes and even checked the handlebars to make sure they were anchored so that I didn’t end up “setting them free” if I stood on the peddles. On the afternoon of my first ride, I grabbed my sunglasses, the garage door opener and my phone to head out for high adventure.
It only took about 3 minutes for me to realize that something was wrong with this plan! What I had discovered was the “engine” of the bike was not the well-oiled-machine that I once thought it was. Ten minutes after that, I ‘turned it around’ and came home out of breath, sweating profusely, and feeling that I had been betrayed by that very same ten-year-old.
I had forgotten that it has been years since I spent any considerable time on a bike, nor was I thinking at that stage in my 10-year-old life about counting calories or glucose levels; I was just hanging out with my friends for literally hours a day! What I thought was fun was actually training that had been buffered with the fact that my memory from that long ago had “rounded off some of the edges” of those experiences. The bottom line: I am going to have to do this a lot more if I am going to get anything out of it. It’s going to be long, lonely, repetitive, hot and sweaty and only I can get it done.
I think of the Technicians that I work with at SERVPRO; certified Techs that work repeatedly to get certain tasks and jobs done at different locations. Ready to respond at a moment’s notice and who can get the job completed faster and safer than most. They make it look easy because they have done it so many times.
I’ll get on that bike tomorrow and try again; then again the day after and the day after that, until someday I might make it look easy or I have to call someone to pick me up.
The point is, if I don’t like where the bike route is going …
… I’ll just “Turn It Around.”
Have you ever been convinced you could do something by your inner ten-year-old? I would love to hear about it in the comment section below. If you like the article please let me know by hitting the like button and sharing it.
Oh, and if you should see that ten-year-old that said this would be easy, tell him I need to speak to him, would you?
