Life as a cycling race

Life as a cycling race

Based on a metaphor submitted to ACBS by Philippe Vuille

In a way, life is like a cycling race. We are all pedaling and we wear shirts with words written on them. In French they say  “Vous roulez pour qui ? ” that translates literally as “for whom do you travel ?” The idea is the same as the one Bob Dylan expresses in the song “You’ve got to serve somebody”. We sometimes believe it’s possible to have blank shirts without anything written on them or we can “not know” why we pedal but in this case it happens that we nevertheless have something written on our shirt, namely “NOTHING” or “I DON’T KNOW”. And how does that feel to travel for that master?

Now imagine there is a shop with piles of shirts wearing all kinds of words written on them. Like ELEGANCE, GENEROSITY, LOYALTY, HEALTH, LOVE, CARING, HONESTY, and so on. And you can choose, for free, any one of them. Which one would you choose?

And look what happens. There comes this voice (you’ve probably heard it before) that says : “ELEGANCE, are you kidding? Have you looked at yourself in a mirror? That one for sure is not for you.” Or something like “How come you want to take CARING? With that crappy introverted personality of yours? Or “XYZ, are you crazy? You really don’t have what it takes for that!”

Can you have all these thoughts AND take the shirt you want? Then, find a goal, preferably a small one, an action that would lead your life a tiny little bit in the direction of that value, and DO it? Of course the voice will come with you, all the way. See if you can welcome it without trying to have it shut up but without obeying it.