Taking the Curve: Leadership and Motorcycle Riding

Finding the line within the fear, inside the possibility of a personal leadership journey. 

This past weekend, I was riding my Moto Guzzi VII through the winding roads of Northern California near to my new home in San Francisco.

So many years have flown by since the time I rode last.

Almost 15 years in fact. I was a much younger man with less patience and much less wisdom. In those days I was in my mid-thirties and had quickly come to love the quickness and power of passing cars like slicing the wind. Realizing how easy it was to simply press, throttle and VROOM!. You’ve just passed five cars like they’re standing still.

And not knowing my own capacities and limits, soon after, tying to find my own edge, but without knowledge, skill and forethought, I took too sharp a turn.

And before I know it, I ended up on my “ass” … falling. I still remember watching my 750cc Honda Magna go flipping over and over above the asphalt as I slid a good thirty feet to the side of it.

Ended up scraping my arm, somewhat badly but overall, I ended up pretty much intact. My bike on the other hand was not in so good shape.

Since then, the fear of riding stayed with me, but the thrill and enjoyment of the freedom of wanting to ride the beautiful roads of Northern California was too hard to say no to.

After-all, you can’t live in San Francisco and not own a motorcycle!

And so, a few weeks back I bought the Moto Guzzi and began riding from San Francisco to Stinson Beach on the roads of highway 1. Thinking about my work in leadership and this journey that I continue to be on, I began to wonder.

How does one learn to work with this fear of riding this motorcycle. Wanting to take the curve with the best possible angle, learning to lean into the possibility of this perfect journey, without falling and with the sheer pleasure of fulfillment and enjoyment?

This leadership journey of the self.

Is it something that involves reading books about motorcycles, this Cartesian quest of “thinking turning into becoming a leader” or is it the Heideggerian process of beingness propelling us into “learning and becoming the leaders with us”?

It’s a little bit of the first and a hell of a of other, I’ve soon become to realize.

Taking a turn on a motorbike, the right way doesn’t happen on its own. You have to learn the dynamics. How to lean your body into the turn while choosing a line of entry-and-exit and then choosing where to look.

Because, as I learned from YouTube and some reading, the bike goes to where you look. So, you look forward, choose a point ahead of the curve and the bike will take you there. Needless to say, hard to do with the experiences I’ve had trying to take the turn.

And so… learning from what I watched and read… I began to practice.

And as I practiced these last few weekends, I began to realize something curious.

• The learning only became realized as I worked with my own self. At times, I would look forward, deciding my entry into the curve and choosing my line of sight and through action, letting go of my fear, I lived the experience of an improved journey as I become fulfilled enjoying every moment of the turns.
• On the other hand, if the fear entered me before entering the curve, or better yet, I let it in, my line of sight would close, and I would slow down and only look a few feet ahead. Loosing hold of my goal, and myself, freezing in the movement, being too cautious, but also learning.

And so, now I’m in the practice of it, having learned the theory, I’m learning. Leaning into the curve, looking ahead to where I want to go… the fear leaving me more and more… sometime being consumed again, and slowing down, keeping safe.

Inside myself, taking the curve not as I did when I was 34, without patience and wisdom, now breathing and releasing the fear, and consciously practicing, feeling the road, sensing my own self and looking ahead toward the goal. Getting better and better and from time to time feeling the exhilaration of the perfect curve taken in being toward a meaningful goal I have set.

This learning I leave to you to consider in your own life. I'm not leaving you with a list of the ‘5’ of this or ‘7’ of that, which I have read makes for the perfect LinkedIn Post.

Just a story of a man, sharing his journey on a motorcycle and for you, an inquiry into your own life's journey. Where in your life do you have to "take the curve"?