Shift Into a Higher Gear summary

Of course, letting go of backward-looking, self-limiting beliefs and adopting a more forward-looking, self-empowering mindset is easier said than done. How do you actually do it? 

One simple but powerful technique is to practice cognitive reframing. That means taking a negative belief and recasting it in a positive way. Let’s say you think you’re too old to start a new career. You could reframe that belief by reminding yourself that you’ve got a wealth of life experience, which will enable you to start a new career more wisely than younger folks. 

Let’s go back to our motorcycle of life metaphor. We’ve looked at the front and rear wheels. Now we can add another component: the kickstand. 

On a motorcycle, the kickstand not only keeps the vehicle upright when it’s parked; when the kickstand is down, it also prevents the engine from starting – a safety feature meant to avert accidental ignitions. To turn on a motorcycle, you’ve got to show the bike you’re ready to ride by putting up the kickstand. 

Even if you’ve never ridden a motorcycle, you’re probably familiar with the basic idea of shifting gears on a vehicle. In cars with automatic transmissions, there are four gears you can shift among: park, neutral, reverse, and drive. 

Metaphorically speaking, many of us live our lives in one of the first three gears. Some of us are coasting along the road in neutral – just going through the motions and doing the same old things in the same old ways through sheer inertia. Some of us have pulled over to the side of the road and shifted into park – completely giving up and coming to a standstill. And some of us are stuck in reverse – endlessly replaying the past, repeating patterns of behavior we developed years ago, and still feeling pain from old wounds that never healed. 

Have you ever seen a motorcycle driving backward? Probably not – and that’s because most motorcycles don’t even have a reverse gear. If you want to back up, you’ve got to do it manually, with your feet. 

A motorcycle only “knows” how to move forward. You put up the kickstand, turn on the engine, and shift into first gear. From that point on, you’re always in some form of “drive” – shifting into higher and higher gears as you speed up. 

Imagine you’re on a motorcycle once again. This time, you’re sitting on it the right way, and you know all about putting up the kickstand and shifting into drive. Now you’re really ready to hit the road, right? 

Well, there’s one more little problem: the weather is cold and rainy. It’s not going to be the idyllic ride you might have been envisioning. 

To get where you want to go, you’ve got to make sure you’re heading in the right direction. If you’re driving a car, that’s a pretty easy task. Want to head left? Just turn the steering wheel that way. 

But on a motorcycle, it’s a much bigger effort. You’ve got to lean your whole body and shift your weight in the direction you want to turn. And if you’re riding with someone sitting behind you, it’s also a team effort. If you lean left, your riding partner has to lean left as well. Otherwise, you could end up crashing.