Finally...The end.

Letz kill this thing!!! I need to start focusing on this weekend’s Almanzo 100!
Parts VII & VIII Thinking Independently and Applying past knowledge to new experience...

To recap and summarize what have been covered so far: These two egg-headed PHDs did a study in an effort to determine the kinds of habits highly successful people tend to adopt. They came up with sixteen such habits. We are applying eight of them within the context of endurance cycling with an eye on the upcoming Trans-Wisconsin. These eight habits are as follows: 1. Perseverance— which means that these successful guyz, the ones that win often, have time on their side. They can “wait you out,” cuz they know that they can go the distance, they also know that you may not know if you can go the distance, so they have a significant advantage over you...2. Managing impulsivity— which means that these guyz keep their eyes on the ball, they focus on the end game. They don’t get on the plane and exclaim, “Who do I bomb?” 3. Thinking flexibly means that successful people see both the trees and the forest. 4. Carpe Diem! Life is a well crafted Coffee Stout, so drink it up and savor it! We are living in the Golden Age of “affordable, grassroots” long distance endurance racing. 5. Meta-cognate dude! This habit pertains to the fact that successful folks do a lot of thinking about thinking. 6. Don’t sit back...Take a risk. Sitting back and hoping things play out fer ya aint no way to be a success...There exists a direct relationship to calculated risk taking and success. 7. Don’t worry, be happy..Don’t sweat the small stuff and itz all small stuff, so rejoice and laugh at the absurdity of it all.
Now for our last two habits...Thinking independently and transferring what ya know to new, but related experiences...

Thinking interdependently involves inclusion and consensus. The idea being that two smart guyz getting together can produce even better results when working together. Makes sense to me. This notion that cycling long distances is made easier and faster if several guyz are working together is a basic one. Yet, to put into action there are often problems that arise such as varying abilities amongst the group riders, etc. But even if there are problems, riding together is the key, unless you are way better than the rest of the field. There is truly strength in numbers in cycling. The trick is to ride with cyclists that are at or a little above your talent.
They call it “transfer” in education speak, and the idea is simple enough.

Intelligent people tend to accumulate interesting and challenging experiences, file them away, and then retrieve appropriate ones to use when confronted with similar, but novel experiences. When confronted with a new and perplexing problem they will often draw forth experience from the past. They can also use the experience of others to add to their repertoire of experiential tools...Again I resist the urge to use myself as an example as I am far from being apart of C&K’s group, but I do often apply what I learned “in the mountains” to this new craft of endurance cycling. So it goes...

Now for the last recap of this long benign diatribe on Costa & Kallich’s Describing 16 Habits of Mind (see http://www.instituteforhabitsofmind.com/ if you wish to read on and explore further their work):
• Perseverance...Think Winston Churchill
• Managing Impulsivity... Opposite of G.W.B.’s approach to foreign policy
• Thinking Flexibly...See forest, but lube chain
• Responding with Wonderment and Awe...Life on a bike is SWEET
• Metacognition...Think about thinking
• Taking Responsible Risks...Itz a sin to bury a body w/o scars
• Finding Humor... “My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.” Woody Allen
• Applying Past Knowledge to New Situations & Thinking interdependently...Draft off the younger, stronger ones and transfer old knowledge to new situations...