The Bug

I got the road riding bug again.  I mentioned it in an earlier post this week, but I woke up this morning once again thinking of going out for a road ride.  It's cold, miserable, and the roads are shit full of sand and salt from Friday's dusting of snow, but for some reason all I wanna do is bundle up and push the pedals.

It's funny how things go in (pardon the pun) cycles.  I have, personally, about a 2 year attention span when it comes to sports.  Since I stopped playing lacrosse-my longest run at a sport, spanning nearly 20 years-I've been hopping around and back to different sporting endeavors.  From Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, to Triathlon, to Mixed Martial Arts, to road cycling, to downhill mountain biking, I've pretty much done everything I can do on two wheels.  Even now, getting into dirt jumping and some small attempts at trials and street riding on my dirt jump bike, I've had a hand in everything.  Hell, I even started skateboarding again.  Then, if you combine all that with the fact that I'm back into being a gym rat again, you'll probably figure out that I'm just an activity junkie.  And honestly, I can't say that I'm the type to sit still for all too long.  I need to be on to something, have some kind of interest, and more times than not it has got to be physical.

So what's the lesson in all of this?  What is the take away that I can use to improve my life and learn a lesson?  I don't know.   At times I feel like this addiction to switching things up has been a downfall of mine.  I get just good enough at something to really give it a go, but then I grow tired of it and things turn stale.  Just at the point where I'm about to advance to the highest level I can achieve, I burn out.  I'm not psychologist, and I honestly don't believe there is a deeper meaning in any of this, but I'm sure that someone sitting me down on a couch would say that I'm a non-commital person.  Maybe so, in the sporting part of my life anyway, but I think the real meaning behind this is that I'm just a very "interested" person.  I see something cool and I want to do it.  Sure there have been times in my life when I would have liked to master something, but at the end of the day, what's the big deal?  I can have just as much fun being proficient in something, and maybe even more, than if I spent months and years of my life trying to perfect just one thing.

The idea of perfection and mastery is deep rooted in our culture.  We're told to look at all the great thinkers, performers, and especially athletes and try to emulate what we see in them.  Why?  Why can't we just learn different skill sets enough to experience the joy in each and then find the next thing?  After all, those skills will be there when we want to call on them again-maybe a bit rusty but they'll be there.  I'm not saying we should just strive to be mundane, rather, we should strive to be well rounded.  Learn different skills, ask different things from different aspects of your personality.  Not everyone has to be Michael Jordan or Tony Hawk.  It's ok to be the "other" guys (or girls), just make sure you're having fun while you're at it.