Looking ahead

A vital skill of riding is the ability to look ahead, not just in the figurative sense of anticipating potential problems, but literally looking ahead, down the road, rather than staring at the ground just in front of the bike. Navigating curves, executing u-turns, or manuevering through crowded traffic conditions is made far safer and easier by this one habit. But training riders in this simple to understand but difficult to execute practice often results in severe headaches for the trainer (or for the rider who fails to heed the advice - see picture!).

And now I know why: Evolution.

Even though we have the physical ability to gaze into the horizon, it seems that we are hard-wired to look only as far as our immediate interests and concerns reach out, a trait necessary for survival. Psychologist Bernt Spiegel writes: " ... looking ahead goes against a deep rooted behavior: the greater the danger and the sharper the experience of threat, the more restricted the view will be to the immediate area ... As soon as a danger (or the fear of danger) pops up, our view is limited to the nearby surroundings."

Simply put, that means when we see danger we look at the danger in an effort to monitor it and protect ourselves. This is good in many instances; if, for example, a man-eating predator is within striking distance I bloody well better pay attention rather than worrying about how difficult it might be to ford that river a few miles away.

But this instinctual habit is not so good in other situations, like when riding a motorcycle we enter a curve WAY too fast and find ourselves creeping towards the guardrail, and fixate on the guardrail. Since a bike tends to go where we look, a nasty crash is often forthcoming. This target fixation in motorycling can get you killed, but such instincts are very difficult to overcome. The only solution is to raise your head and move your eyes from the problem (guardrail) to the solution (the safe road), which is counter to the "Watch out for the guardrail!!!!" screaming in your head. This solution, while simple in theory, is very difficult in practice and requires discipline; you must let your brain over-ride your instinct.

I think this brain/instinct struggle factors into a great deal of decision making/problem facing in our lives. When confronted with an unpleasant situation, we tend to focus on the problem rather than the solution and as a result the problem - the perceived threat - suddenly seems insurmountable, a form of target fixation. We get so focused on the problem that we don't look at the solutions and eventually the problem wins. So just as with riding we have to make our rational brain (training & experience) over-ride the bird-brain (instinctual response from 10,000 years of evolution).

Instincts have kept us alive but in a new world it is ultimately our brains - our ability to learn and adapt - that will keep us alive, both literally and figuratively, whether on the road or in the job.