I do a lot of driving – and it is all in the city traffic. Every now and then, I get to cruise on the freeways and this happened over the weekend when the Nationals were on at Marulan and Gunning.

I have not had a need for a car with cruise control – but this time, I took Shirley’s car and it had that fancy function on her steering wheel. So, for the first time in my life, I tried cruise control.

A few decades ago when I started racing, we still went on training rides. But we did not have coffee rides back then….just a can of coke at the milk bar to celebrate the end of a hard session. Coffee and cycling is a bit like cruise control on a car. It doesn’t help you get there any quicker or make your life better. It just opens up another whole world of options.

During normal driving mode over the weekend, my eyes were on the speedo and my foot on the accelerator. Click in the cruise control and I was able to lift both thighs off the front edge of the seat and dry off the sweat that usually builds up after prolonged pressure. I was not quite able to get into a yoga position – but I was certainly looking for things for my legs to do. I was also able to keep my eyes off the speedo and check out the burnt shrubs along the road – plus noticing a lot more of the scenery.

We invent things that reflect what goes on in our lives and cruise control is one of those things.  Our body functions pretty much on cruise control. We don’t have to make our lungs suck or our hearts pump. It just happens.  And this allows us to concentrate on pushing those pedals on the bike or sipping that cup of coffee. We would be totally overwhelmed if we had to DO everything.

Now, what if you knew that your finances, health, romance and spirituality was really under cruise control? Would you be doing things differently or feeling a certain freedom? (Just like the freedom to let my thighs breathe on my way back from Gunning).

The second we are born, most things go on cruise control. It is just that a part of us is such control freaky that we keep trying to make things happen – rather than letting them happen.. This propensity to try to control everything is called micro management in business. And the more we micro manage, the less options we have

I have now resolved to pinch my wife’s car every time I have to go for a long drive on the freeway It is just more fun.