A few things that riding a motorcycle has in common with life:

• You are where you look: focus on where you want to go next. It’s important to know who and what is behind you, but you cannot let it become your focus. Lose your focus and you’ll have some close calls or something worse.
• If you’re doing it out of pride, rethink it. That applies just as much to picking your first bike as it does to racing strangers on the road.
• Taking a passenger along changes things. You may need to make adjustments for their sake.
• Stay alert. What’s around you is constantly changing. The environment you’re in, the people you’re around, the obstacles in the road. Be aware of them in case you need to adjust speed, change courses, or even come to a stop.
• Gear up. Get prepared before you ride by buying good gear, then take the time to actually put it on. Laziness is no excuse when avoiding something that could hurt you. Maybe you just wanted to feel comfortable instead, but you’re going to regret that in the long run.
• Take in advice from those who are more experienced than you. Watch them to understand, listen to their tips, and avoid their bad choices.

I’m sure my friends who have been riding for longer than I have could give additional advice or go more in depth, maybe about carefully choosing who you ride with, or slowing down for the curves. Of course the two subjects here don’t completely relate, and we’re not even diving into deeper motivations behind these simple bullet points, so I won’t stretch the analogy to make things fit. For example: Ride like everyone is out to run you over is great advice on the bike, but paranoia in life is not such a good thing. It’s true that on a motorcycle you can do everything in your power to prepare for the worst and still get into trouble, just as in life the same can happen, but I’ll be the first to admit that the choice to ride a motorcycle is not nearly as safe as choosing to be in a car, where you’re more protected from whatever is coming at you–that is if safety is your number one concern. So the analogy breaks down, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn something from it.

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