Day 2 of 30: Goals

Good morning on day 2 of 30 Days of Biking! The exclamation point may seem a bit excessive with everything going on out there right now, but with nice weather in the forecast for today, I'm choosing to be optimistic. I hope you are too. Let's call it a goal.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about goals over the last week or so. I've always been relatively terrible about managing them, but I do think they're important. Then I got to thinking about how many people have had goals for this year that have been completely wiped out (my family is not immune). I got to thinking that it might be time to shift goals, both in the short term and for the big picture. Let's face it: we're not going back to normal any time soon, if ever. So, I decided to set some goals for this month...

If you read my post from yesterday, there really is only one goal relating to the 30DoB challenge, and that is to ride a bike every day. But if you know me, you know me better than to just do the bare minimum. This is now my 5th attempt at this fun little challenge, and every year I like to set my own personal goals for it that are a little bit different each time.

From a cycling perspective, I'm keeping it pretty simple: commute more times via bike (and public transit) than car. I'm grateful to even have a commute, so I'll call it an act of appreciation if I accomplish this. Side note: I'm also having some mechanical issues with my car, so I really don't feel like driving it right now anyway.

On a broader perspective, I have a couple additional goals that are more ambiguous. One is to continue to support the local economy which has been hit pretty hard by this whole thing. So far so good, as I made it a point to stop by Grove City Brewing on my ride home yesterday:

Me being one person stopping in to pick up two crowlers (and leaving a tip) is not going to save the world by itself, but every little bit helps, right? As you can see in the top two pics above, Grove City has a Carry Out Local initiative going on, with the slogan "Be Safe. Keep Calm. Eat and Drink Well." That's right up my alley. Expect to see more of these over the next 29 days (and beyond).

I've also set a goal to keep up better with this blog, if for no other reason than to have a record of what I experienced during this absurd time to be alive. My girlfriend has suggested that everyone write a journal or something to keep notes of what we've gone through, and I do agree that we should all try.

Writing has always been therapeutic for me too, and the 30DoB challenge has lately begun to be the true shaking off of my Winter depression that has seemed to hit me extra hard this year. Maybe you've felt this way too. Writing just makes me feel better, and at the very least, if we all try to do things that make us feel good inside, we'll get through this before you know it.

It goes without saying that riding a bike is another one of those things for me, and to come full circle, I'm about to be 2/2 in bicycle commuting this month (picture is from yesterday morning):

Small steps, to reach the bigger goals. Basically, do what you need to do, but don't forget about doing what makes you happy. Do what you can to help others. And if any of those somehow involve riding a bike, even more power to you.

By the way, I promise my daily posts will become less cerebral at some point. I'm just "writing out" a lot of things right now, and I appreciate you coming along for the ride.

30DoB Mileage Total: 12.5