S1 E5 - The greatest risk of all

Riding comes with a risk. A risk I’m willing to take, because it makes me feel alive.

But when it comes to daily life, risking it isn’t always a given, which is interesting.

Because if you make a mistake on your motorcycle, life could be over in a second.

If you make a mistake in life, in most cases, you learn.

Maybe the biggest risk of all is to not take any risks.

Turning life into a ride

Riding makes me feel alive, just like creating does.

And that sparked something in me.

Some would call me greedy or even delusional.

But I don’t want to feel free only on Sundays, when I’m out on two wheels.

I want to make life a ride.

Not a midlife crisis 

I don’t think the person you become when you put your helmet on is someone else.

That badass motherf*cker, smiling from ear to ear while making his way through the twisties.

That’s you.

When the world is no longer telling you who you should be.

It’s not a midlife crisis.

It’s a calling.

“At some point in your life, someone close to you will tell you not to buy a motorcycle. It’s very important that you don’t listen.”

“Become who you are.” — Nietzsche

Being real

There is a Chinese proverb,

“A twisted tree lives its own life, and a straight tree gets turned into wood.”

Still, we compromise with ourselves on the things we want to do.

Why?

Because being real also comes with a risk.

If you improve, you risk outgrowing people.

If you speak your truth, you risk being misunderstood.

If you carve your own path, you risk carving it alone from time to time.

If you ride a motorcycle, you risk everything.

Maybe somewhere along the way, we made a silent decision that it’s easier to fit in.

After all, that is what most people are doing.

Yeah, but,

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti

I’d rather be real and called weird than hold myself back.
The things you lose while being real are usually fake anyway.

The unlived life

But if freedom comes with such a high price, why bother?

Because the alternative comes with a price too.

“The world is full of people suffering from the effects of their own unlived life. They become bitter, critical, or rigid, not because the world is cruel to them, but because they have betrayed their own inner possibilities. The artist who never makes art becomes cynical about those who do. The lover who never risks loving mocks romance. The thinker who never commits to a philosophy sneers at belief itself. And yet, all of them suffer. Because deep down they know, the life they mock is the life they were meant to live.” — Carl Jung

So if the cost of not going for it means suffering in bitterness for the rest of your life,

Maybe go for it?