Day 4 of Blogging Challenge - Buying a Harley-Davidson

This blog post is the fourth in a series of 14 (days) that will be used to reJumpStart my blogging habit. I started a few years ago and lost interest (and the habit) of blogging. I was looking for a way to encourage and prod me to start this habit. Maybe this will get you thinking about blogging again or for the first time. Found this inspiration as I was reading blogs. I hope you will follow me and provide me with moral Internet support.

Today, I wanted to review my experience in purchasing a new Harley-Davidson. Earlier this year I bought a 2015 Harley-Davidson Road Glide Special. I jumped in the deep end and picked up a pretty big bike for my first road bike. I wasn’t 100 percent sure what I would happen but after a few months into I have loved riding and look forward to improving my skill and different riding experiences. 

What spawned this crazy purchased was that my brother-in-law and friends had purchased Harleys and this pushed me over the edge on trying something new. I had jumped with all fours into riding four wheelers at the sand dunes, so I had already tasted of speed and the fun in open space.

Another help or prod is that my brother had been riding a Harley for years. I had a few conversations with him about what to consider and what he would look for in a bike. His ideas led me to the Road Glide over the Street Glide. Having the Street Glide sets me aside from most of the other guys I am riding with but I am happy with it. I even went with the Superior Blue which is a departure from many guys going with the darker colors and even the murder look.

As far as the process of buying, note that Harley-Davidson does not deal on their prices if you have any leeway in dealing it is with the accessories and extras. I would recommend that you ask around and find a dealer that has a good reputation for making deals on the extras. The other key is seeing what guys are doing with their bikes, pipes, air boxes, seats, handlebars. There are numerous options and it is surprising how many different ways you can setup a bike. I would recommend that you get a pipe, slip-ons and air box as you will do this soon enough. Remember highway pegs, sissy bar for your gal and if you will be riding long distances, get yourself a back rest.

Also, make sure to buy protective equipment, including helmet (recommend the modular, full face), leather jacket, heavy boots, gloves and chaps or Kevlar jeans. There are other options, you will find these from asking around and researching on the internet.

Finally, make sure to take the motorcycle safety course preferable before you start riding. Go to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and find a class near you. I waited to take my class and maybe in retrospect I should have done that first. If you have no or limited experience it will help you.

Do you have any experiences with buying or learning to ride a motorcycle?

Day 3 of Blogging Challenge - Morning Pages My Personal Experience So Far

This blog post is the third in a series of 14 (days) that will be used to reJump Start my blogging habit. I started a few years ago and lost interest (and the habit) of blogging. I was looking for a way to encourage and prod me to start this habit again. Maybe this will get you thinking about blogging again or for the first time. Found this inspiration as I was reading blogs. I hope you will follow me and provide me with moral Internet support.

From a previous post, I explained the basics of using a habit talked about by Julie Cameron, author of The Artist's Way called 'Morning Pages', this is a practice of writing three pages each day in a stream of consciousness approach. The morning pages can be a way to generate creativity and clear your mind of any thoughts of any kind, negative or what may be cluttering your mind. I have found that you can clear you thoughts and may also answer other questions. I think while needing to clear your thoughts you also need to be ready to answer questions that may be bouncing around in your mind. Be ready as these opportunities are around and you can somewhat guide your thinking process as you are writing and moving your pen across the page.

I started this new habit in June of this year (2015). I have continued up to this month on a fairly regular basis. I will admit that I have not been able to do these every day and first thing in the morning. I have quit beating myself up about and try not to have a guilty conscious when I miss a day. Writing first thing in the morning and the earlier the better seems to help as well. I seem to feel better if I do this before anyone is up and I clear my head before the day starts. Also, you don’t have to explain what you are doing and you can minimize interruptions. I am finding that I can finish these in less than 30 minutes sometimes 20 if I just write and never lift the pen. One key is to just keep writing and even if you don’t know what to write, just write “I am not sure what to write” and keep writing that until something else comes to mind. Sometimes you may fill a whole page with these words, but given how morning pages work this is just find and work if just remember to keep writing until something comes back to your thing. Just try it, it works and over time you will come to trust that new thoughts will come to mind.

If you want to know more about the practice and read what others have learned from using this habit you can read my blog on the basics of morning pages. 

Do you use the "Morning Pages" habit?

What experiences have you had?

Would you recommend this habit to others?

Day 2 of Blogging Challenge - Morning Pages

This blog post is the second in a series of 14 (days) that will be used to reJumpStart my blogging habit. I started a few years ago and lost interest (and the habit) of blogging. I was looking for a way to encourage and prod me to start this habit again. Maybe this will get you thinking about blogging again or for the first time. Found this inspiration as I was reading blogs. I hope you will follow me and provide me with moral Internet support.

Recently, I started to use a habit talked about by Julie Cameron, author of The Artist's Way called 'Morning Pages', this is a practice of writing three pages each day in a stream of consciousness approach.

You are supposed to use paper and pen, and just write whatever comes into your whether it makes sense or not. There is not a science to three pages, I think it is somewhat arbitrary, but it works. At first I was not sure about the paper and pen part as I have been attempting to minimize paper. After a few weeks, I am good with it and I think it helps to get the thoughts out on to paper and then know they can be destroyed. I decided to use legal pads single sided, with a specific pen each day. I start mine with “Good Morning TT (Terrible Ted) and then write away. I also have found that my penmanship is terrible, and thought that this may get better. I actually see that it isn’t and maybe that is okay because no one can read them, even me. I think it is okay given that you are not really supposed to read them again from what I understand from Cameron. They are meant to flush your mind of whatever is in there, negative thoughts, frustrations, what is bothering you, blocks to whatever you may be trying to accomplish. I think being liberated from the need to read them again. I have about 3 legal pads filled up right now and I would expect to throw them away. Cameron recommends not reading them for at least a few weeks. I don’t think I could make sense anyway.

I will admit that I have not been able to do these every day and first thing in the morning. I have quit beating myself up about and try not to have a guilty conscious when I miss a day.

Writing first thing in the morning and the earlier the better seems to help as well. I seem to feel better if I do this before anyone is up and I clear my head before the day starts. Also, you don’t have to explain what you are doing and you can minimize interruptions. I am finding that I can finish these in less than 30 minutes sometimes 20 if I just write and never lift the pen.

If you want to know more about the practice and read what others have learned from using this habit. I would recommend doing a Google search for "artists way morning pages" and check out some of the many articles that have been writing on this concept. Here are a few links as well to get you started. One is a video from Cameron’s site. The Guardian published an article here, and INC Magazine wrote about the advantages of the Morning Pages routine in “Why It’s Worth Making Time for This Lengthy Morning Ritual”

Day 1 - 14 Day Blogging Challenge

This blog post is the first in a series of 14 (days) that will be used to reJump start my blogging habit. I started a few years ago and lost interest (and the habit) of blogging. I was looking for a way to encourage and prod me to start this habit again. Maybe this will get you thinking about blogging again or for the first time. Found this inspiration as I was reading blogs.

OK, I admit it, I must have an issue using Google Search. I was reading a great blog article on how to start or restart blogging and the author discussed the concept of a 14 Day Blogging Challenge. Basically, the idea is to write a blog post every day at least 500 words for 14 days. For the life of me I think I found every article but that one... I am going to just pick one blogger and use references from Jeff Goins articles encouraging writing and use him as my new baseline if for no other reason than I follow him and he writes a lot about how to write. Goins has a great blog to follow if you want continued inspiration with your writing endeavors, a few posts I would review are How to Make Writing Effortless  and a new concept on how to start something ... Something about starting today not tomorrow :).

Since I have lost the original blog post, I will use the following standards (maybe roughly using Jeff Goins ideas) to guide my 14 Day Blogging Challenge. 1) Write a blog post every day and 2) Write about whatever I want to. After 14 Days the idea is that you can break through the challenges of starting to write blog articles. Seems to follow the idea on how to start a new habit, the pain with this idea is breaking though the writing each and every day and publish. However it works, I can see the benefit of writing a blog every day and having to publish these and make them public. I think the public part of these helps in the motivation area. Nothing new here but more about just taking the first steps to start up a new activity that I enjoy.

I have already outlined subjects to write about the hard part for me will be to add at least 500 words of content that is somewhat interesting to someone. Funny how when you need to write at least X number of words initially is more difficult for me. I would expect that 'forcing' myself to write everyday over time would get the writing juices flowing and create a rhythm for writing.

If you have found any good articles or blog posts on how to jump start blogging, let me know. Maybe you have ideas for jump starting the blogging process. Feel free to comment on what has worked for you.

I hope you will follow me on my initial approach and provide me with moral Internet support.