Lesson Five

Oh no not the tightening of the girth! Grrr...

This is Nootka after two days off riding. She knows what’s next..the tightening of the girth. That sure isn’t on her top ten list of things that she loves.

I’m very familiar with that look on Nootka’s face. When I was commuting and working the normal 45hrs+ workweek, I had that ‘look’ most mornings. If I had ears like Nootka’s they would have been in that annoyed position. Although, I would have put them further back in a more threatening positions and said, “Where’s my @*ing diet coke?”

Now the cool thing about Nootka is that she only looks like that for a few short seconds after the girth is tightened. As soon as I get her working, she brightens up as she likes the engagement. I’ve noticed that if I go out to ride her with a list of exercises to check off, she seems to check out. If I turn it around and have general idea of what we are going to do and then modify it based on how she is doing and how I’m doing it works out much better.

I used to run my whole life off of lists. I had lists on the iPhone, on the iPad, on paper, or on post it notes. I always felt frantic if I didn’t get it all done. If I had one or two things on a list that would have been manageable, but when you have ten or twenty or even thirty it gets out of hand.

Now I have a couple of general things and that’s it. Never, never do I put more than four things on a list. I only put the must does.. nothing else. Just like with Nootka, I need to see how things are going and not freak out if things aren’t checked off. Is it that important to put your life on list of things to do?

Here’s the Lesson for me:

Have general ideas of things you need to do. See how things are going and modify on the fly.