SuperCamp: I am Jack's Motivation

Now is the time of year where we traditionally get snow, cold, ice, sleet, snow, cold and snow. This does not so much put a dampener on my work on TheSuperCamp, as an icepack down it's trousers. I am impotent in my wish to stroke (grind) tickle (sand) and caress (weld) TheSuperCamp.

The current climate has a two fold effect. One is a physical impact on my work- filler, sealant and other substances freeze in cold or at least don't enjoy being 'worked' at that temperature. Much like me The other is an impact on my enthusiasm to go and work on her.

One of the reasons I have embarked on this adventure is that I have only ever owned a motorbike as transport and after years of barely surviving winters, I am ready for a bit of comfort. But, until she is launched, I am still very much on my bike, enduring the 20 minute ride to TheSuperCamp in snow and zero temperatures, which does not often seem very appealing from my warm, girlfriended bed. Especially when it looks like this-

But, us Englishmen are a hardy bunch and a little snow and piles won't stop me from my mission. So I peel myself from my bed and get to TheSuperCamp -

The motorcycle journey is valuable time to make a ToDoList. This is easy on a bike as, more so than in a car, you can zone out. In a car you daydream but you are always aware that you are sitting in a car operating controls. There is no physical sensations, you are just you, sitting in a metal box. On a bike, you are fixed in a position and the world is restricted to the view through a visor. You cannot see yourself and you cannot feel yourself but for the vibrations of the bike running through you. On a bike you are sort of CancelledOut. And just as we normally think of 'me' in 'my body' looking out through the eyes, the bike is your body and the visor the eyes of this strange symbiotic creature. In this way you can think effortlessly and it may be a grand explanation of how to formulate a ToDoList, but it works.

You need to add the next layer of filler to the passenger side bottom sill

Slight lean right

You need to red oxide the passenger footwell

Look left, decelerate

You need to measure up for a new rear door hinge

clutch, gear, accelerate

You need to seam seal the interior sill weld

lean, straighten up, gear,

You need to weld the corner of the wheel arch

So you make the ToDoList, zoom right in to TheMentalTimeline and you see them, already there, in the order that makes most sense. This is all very elegant in theory, until you actually touch down in the frozen tundra where TheSuperCamp is the closest thing there is to a sun. Once 'on the ground' it's a race between action and inaction. Inaction seeps in and fogs up TheMentalTimeline, you can't put anything in any order and so you see everything at once,

the task seems too big.

A classic trigger for this is when you are short of materials or tools. "I need to do this, but the welder has run out of gas" and "I can't do this bit, before I weld that bit" and "I need this part, before I can do that bit, before I can weld that part" It is disheartening sometimes to see my tendency towards this spiral.

The trick is to have the first task of the day set in stone and get straight on it. As soon as you are working, TheMentalTimeline takes care of itself. Here is an example. On Thursday I touched down with the straight intention of sanding off and refilling a particular part of TheSuperCamp. As soon as I arrived I got straight to it and then before you know it I had repaired the corner of the passenger side FrontWheelArch and it was the end of the day. Whilst filling and sanding, my mind wandered along the Timeline, found it's next task and I mechanically drifted along to it. It got done without me interfering with my highly disruptive, SpiralingMildPanic.