nebraska city, nebraska

Nebraska City, Nebraska local bike shop nearby

 As I write this, we are headed north on I-29, somewhere in Missouri. I’m not even totally sure of what I want to blog today. This blog is about my second bike ride across America but right now I’m not riding across America on my bicycle, I’m riding shotgun in our Explorer while the Queen has us aimed at Nebraska City. All I’ve been doing is sipping root beer and eating peanut butter m&ms. I’m sure that’s not on the Cyclist Power Foods Top Ten but, hopefully, I’ll get some real food later to counteract the poisons I've just ingested.

So, I’m thinking about this blog, going through things I have written and stored away in Pages, looking at doodles, and I find this page in one of my Moleskin sketchbooks. I doodled it Tuesday morning, 06 February 2018. As you can see, it’s my thoughts on assassins that kill our creativity. You've dealt with them. So have I. In fact, we all have. I’m sure they’ll attack again. I’ll take a look at each one, briefly, and do my best to apply them to this bike ride so you feel like you’re read a cycling blog and not a motivation speech. Of course, it could be both.

Killer 1, Doubt - This one is self-explanatory. Whenever we are challenged there is often a bit of doubt with a little voice from within that whispers, “You probably can’t do this,” or “You sure about this?” It’s all an attitude but it can bury your dreams, creativity, and power in a second. The first time I did this ride, 2009, I had someone ask me, “What are you going to do if you don’t make it?” My response was a simple one and honest as well, “I don’t have a Plan B.” And I didn't. Don’t let your doubts, or someone else's doubts, get bigger than your dreams. Focus on the dreams, not the doubts. There are times when we have to get tough, get ugly, and tell our doubts, “Shut up!” (Don’t tell your mom I told you to say that.)

One of my favorite quotes is, “If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.” 

Killer 2, Comparison - “I’m certainly not as good as she is,” or “He’s much stronger or creative or smarter than I could ever be.” It’s that little voice again. Our doubts remind us what we think we cannot do and our comparison confirms and moves in for the kill.

Killer 3, Getting started - Simple. What we don’t start, we never finish. Whether it’s pedaling up a mountain pass or painting a sunrise, get started. We always have dreams and goals lying around that need a jump start. Pull some of those things out and start . . . now!

Killer 4, Fear of failure - Someone told me long ago, “If you blow it and learn something from it, you haven’t failed. You've learned." There is a huge difference between failing and quitting, Thomas Edison failed many, many times but he didn’t quit. That’s why we have lights in our houses.

Killer 5, Imitation - Imitation is what we get when we lose the comparison battle. God made one of each of us. We are different, unique, weird, and wonderful. If we try to be like someone else and succeed, we’ll have a duplicate and one of us will no longer be necessary. Be you and go for it.

Killer 6, I’ve never done it this way before. Or . . . We’ve always done it just like this. These are killer sentences that need to be eliminated whenever we try something new. Of course, we’ve never done it this way. In fact, we’ve never done it! C’mon. We’re taking these challenges to do something new, not same old thing, the same old way, with the same old results. If we always do what we’ve always done we’ll always be where we’ve always been.

Killer 7, We forget our Creator - I have folks tell me, “But I’m not creative.” And I ask them, “You are created in the image of God, right? “(Genesis 1:26) “God is the Creator, right? (Genesis 1:1) "Therefore . . . You are creative! So get with it." Pedal, paint, weld, build, sew, doodle, play, hike, sing, draw, sculpt, raise, paddle, imagine, create, design, invent, photograph, dream, jump, fly, scuba, stain, cook, collect, whatever. 

Hmmmm, while I was writing this we time-warped from Missouri to Iowa to Nebraska in a matter of minutes. No travel killers held the Queen back today!