125 CC PIT BIKE

Draw a line and do something meaningful around it. This is all you have to do.

Visual thinking doesn't have to be complex to be valuable. You can start with a line, and use it as a lens into something richer. Take this simple exercise:

Draw a line that connects any two points on a page. The line can be as straight or as wavy as you like. It's your line, do what you want with it.
Label one point "Start" and one point "The End."

You have now created the timeline of your life. Wherever you think is appropriate, put a hash on the line and label it "today."

The rest of the exercise is two-fold. First, go backward on the line and mark down the important things that came before today. It could be milestones, like your first job or when you learned to ride a bike. It could be decisions, like when you decided not to eat meat, or that you didn't really care about calculus. Mark down what was important.

The second part of the exercise is also simple: Fill in the rest of the line. What do you hope to encounter before "the end?" What will be important after today?

Draw a line and doing something meaningful around it. If it sounds like a cheap exercise, it's not. It's an honest but quick way of taking stock at a very high altitude. I found it in a great book called The Pathfinder about 10 years ago, and do it regularly to keep pulse with where I'm headed.

For the experimental, there are other variations on a timeline worth exploring. Here are some other structures:

Branching futures: Because there's no sense in pretending there is only one possibility.

Branching pasts: A family-tree of activities and influences that add up to this moment.

Lifecycle: Because there is something in the past- a right or a wrong- that you may be seeking.

Will be looking to start cycling more soon after not doing so for months. I'm hoping to enter the Smithfield Nocturne Folding Bike Race next summer, so I'll probably start doing some time trials round the Smithfield route during my annual leave either this month or next month to get a gist of how slow I am.

The exercise will probably do my SAD some good, though the problem with anything like cycling is down to two things; having the time between work/what little time I have to relax at home and having the energy, because shift work leaves me constantly drained.

Anyhow, I managed to snap up a bargain on new shiny lights + wireless micro bicycle computer kit for ?49 with CycleSurgery's Timeout Tuesday deal last week. Saved myself ?40, which was neat. I'm picking up a Brooks saddle this week as well, though I'm wondering whether or not to ditch the rear rack, as the weight of the bicycle is too much for me at the moment and I've already got the front luggage block. Probably worth investing in a matching Brooks saddle bag if I really need the rear luggage option for anything, though I doubt it.