"I am the boss of the bike!"

Hi Mechanic-ians - welcome back to another of our exciting blog posts!

Its has been a little time between post (which is naughty!) but for the sake of keeping our thinking good - we won't let it dampen our enthusiasm : )

In fact, it is good that we have waited as it allowed the Chief to get this idea for the blog post which he received from none other than his eleven year old daughter.

We'll get straight into shall we?

So, the Chief Mechanics household consists of The Chief's wife (Mumma Mechanic) as well as three apprentices (or what are commonly known as children). Two of the Chief's children are at the age of no longer wanting training wheels on their bikes. They want to "ride it by ourselves!!!!". So, across the safe residential streets of Burleigh Heads, Australia, the Chief patiently teaches one of his children to start riding a bike unsupported. As many parents know this is a process which involves many unknowns. This is especially true when it comes to the length of time it will take the little person to actually achieve their status of unsupported bike riding ability.

Day 1 of lessons complete - proved by the Chiefs sore lower back. Although some major improvement and milestones were reach - still - the unsupported status was not quite achieved by the young apprentice mechanic. We went to bed with high hopes for the next day.

Who's the boss?!

"Dad?! Can I help to teach my sister to ride her bike?" says the eldest apprentice the next morning. "Sure, but be careful". Now - I must confess something now. A chink in the armour, so to speak. I doubted. I thought - "well, they can have a go but I know I will be out there soon enough". How wrong I was...or should I say - how incorrect my thinking was.

I didn't hear the kids in the street so I went out to check all was well. In the distance I saw my little daughter unsupported screeching with joy that she was "riding my bike!!!!!!!". I-couldn't-believe-it.

Both my daughters came hurtling towards me with massive grins on their faces having reached their own respective achievements.

It was my eleven year old daughter that provided the inspiration for this post and gave me a real nugget of motivation.

"...well, I thought of how I could motivate her to ride her bike..." explains my eldest. "I realised that the bike was being the boss of her...and I know she doesn't like being bossed around..." This is absolutely true may I add. "So, I said to her...do you like the bike being the boss?!" which my younger daughter answers "No-I-don"t" My eldest daughter responded by saying the only thing one could say at this point "well, you are the boss of the bike...be the boss!". This was obviously quite a revelation for my youngest daughter. She immediately straighten her back, put her foot on the peddle and preparing to launch saying with determination "I am the boss of the bike!" With that...rode off, unsupported, for the first time in her 6 year existence. Magic.

So, whats the point?

Well, simply put - who is the boss of your bike - if we are using bike here as a metaphor for your thinking/thoughts? Does the bike rule you or are you ruling the bike?

We are, on this occasion, not talking about "mind over matter" but instead the parallel of having dominion (control over/of) our thinking and the way we learn to perform tasks such as riding a bike. For many, our thoughts have the capacity of making as become "off-balanced". We can allow our thoughts to makes us feel angry, frustrated, hopeless and the list goes on. Like a bike seems to just "lose control" when we are trying to ride it for the first time we can, with time, tame the bike and bring it under our control...we can have dominion over it. The same applies to our thoughts. We can be the "boss-of-our-thoughts". To tame our thoughts we need to go through the same training as we do when we first learnt to ride a bike. We need the mental equivalent of training wheels. Partly, that is what Thinking Mechanics is here to provide. Training wheels for your thinking. The goal is that we all say to our thinking "I want to do it by myself!" - freedom exists in this place.

Until next time...think well and think good.

The Chief.