Podcast is all about why you should start saying one simple word
This podcast is all about why you should start saying one simple word. No. Let's cue that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Welch and welcome to the Rowman Podcast. Roadman, roadman, welcome back to another roadman, cycling podcast. The energy is high here in the roadman studio. As you can hear, today's podcast, it's a better practice which you absolutely need to start implying to your personal life. It's a simple word, N-O, no. Start saying no. And this topic is on my mind because earlier in the week i was approached by a new podcast show sponsor it would be our first podcast show sponsor they want the sponsor to daily podcast and the money was right and i just taught about it and the more i taught about it i said this just doesn't sit i'm so so hyper protective of your time you the listener. You've decided to devote and carve out time in your day to listen to me and my rambling and hopefully you learned a thing or two and maybe crack the odds smile every now and then. But I'm so protective of that that to recommend to you guys a sponsor and me to sit here and endorse this nutrition company which I don't believe in, I don't use and I don't think it's beneficial to you, it just wouldn't feel right. So for that reason I exercised the no muscle and as soon as I I just felt this waist coming off my shoulders. It was like I was wearing a waist at vest and someone was pressing down on my shoulders. And as soon as I said the word no, the weight just lifted off because I was debating this show sponsor for a few days and then it's just, no, set me free. And I'm going to talk to you today about how this simple word can set you free in all aspects of your life. But before I do, may I ask you to head on over to patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. I've taken one for the team guys big time on saying no to this podcast sponsor and if you can do me the solid and keep the show on the road. Head on over to patreon. It's a small donation to Progs of a Beer once a month in return. I'm going to give you access to that secret podcast. The secret podcast last month had some epic stuff in it about how I'm using DNA testing at the moment, what company I'm using, how I'm using it, and about a magic drink I'm using every morning to shed excess body weight. It's all in the secret podcast, you get access to that by donating, buying me the price of a beer once a month over on patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch, it's in the show notes and having said no to the potential podcast sponsor, I need it more than ever. So with that all said, let's jump So every day we are absolutely bombarded. We have requests from friends and not so close friends. We're bombarded with emails, calendar notifications, notifications on our phone, calls, what's up. And this isn't a skill we've ever learned. We learned skills as we're going on up to your life. Our parents teach our things, teach us things. We learn stuff in school, we learn stuff in college. But that doesn't mean that that's all we need to learn. This is a skill that's absolutely essential now to shut out that noise because either you run your day or your day runs you. If you say yes to absolutely everything you get, every friend request you get, every notification you get, every WhatsApp from a friend that's going to go for coffee, every time the phone rings if you answer it, if you say yes to everything, you live your day on a responsive footing, constantly responding and the quality of your day basically becomes dependent on the quality of those intrusions into your personal life. Now if you flip that on its head and you say no to everything, you remain in complete control of your day and you get to carve out a purposeful day, aligned with your goals and aligned with your values. I remember the first time this hit home at me, I was in a meeting and I may have told the story before, I was in a meeting and a friend's phone rang and it was a senior guy there who I respect a lot and the friend answered his phone and got off the phone after It was just wrapping up and he got off the phone after kind of apologetic for taking the phone call and The senior mentor dude looked at him and said you know, it's your phone you get to decide when it rings You get to decide how you interact with it.
Don't have to respond to it just because it dings you and I got…
You don't have to respond to it just because it dings you and I got thinking about that and then I was sitting home later on that night and I was looking at my dog and I was thinking I wonder what my dog thinks. This is a crate. This is the crazy bazare time since we go on in the roadman so I can podcast. I was thinking of what my dog was thinking about and it's like dogs must think that the phones rule us because every time the phone goes ding we run to grab the phone and see what the notification is. So it must be very confusing for them. So it was that point inspired by my dog and his thoughts. I said I'm turning all notifications off my phone. So if you try ring me you won't get me. Unless I happen to have the phone in my hand at that moment, I have zero notifications for calls, texts, emails, nothing. My phone is a tool I use at a time that suits me, not at a time that suits other people. And as the podcast is getting more and more popular, which thank you by the way, because some of you are sharing it around, some of you are recommending the club mates WhatsApp groups, all that super powerful. So just a nice junction to say thanks for that and it's much appreciated. As it's getting more popular, I'm getting more requests. Can I do this? Can I introduce this? Can I send this person a message? A lot of it's flattering and I do respond to some of it but I'm going to talk to you how in a minute. I respond in a very structured way because it's hard to say no to this stuff because you're flattered by it. But it's better to say no even if it's a hard no to give someone and to be honest with them and say, look, I flattered, I think it's a cool project, but I don't have time at the moment to be honest and say no rather than say yes and let someone down or underperform on it. Because people understand you saying no. And you know the craziest thing that happens when you say no to people? You realise that most people don't care, that they're so caught up thinking about their own thing that they're not actually that worried about you. I'm organising at the moment this first juncture, first time I've introduced this concept and it's going to be epic. So on the 4th and 2nd of December, I'm organizing the first of what I hope would be an annual event, Roadman Virtual Cycling Summit, where it's my goal to bring 20 speakers together to cover the topic of how we maximise performance in cycling. So I'm going to get 20 of the best minds in cycling and ask them their secrets from maximising performance, from a variety of different angles from nutritionist to sports psychologists, to world horror writers and all sorts of things. It's going to be free for you guys, but I'm putting that together at the moment. And so I'm reaching out before I get a million DMs, there's no links available to sign up or anything, but I will let you know when I have it. I'm reaching out to a lot of guys at the moment and someone I've said no. And that's awesome. I don't hold a grudge when people say no. I'm like, he's busy. It's not that he doesn't value me or he doesn't value his project. He's busy. He's utter stuff to do. So how are you organize my week and i thought this would be helpful for you because i always hate on podcast when somebody presents problem they don't give you a solution so yes. We should start saying no to more stuff yes when we say no we take back control but what if something really cool comes up with your own comes along says and you can you be on the job on podcast what i miss out on that. Course i don't miss out on that but how i structure this stuff is i see if it fits so at the start of the week on a Monday. I plan out my week, so I put my stuff in that's most important to me. I put it in forest. So I start with a blank slate and I schedule in family time, then I schedule in training time, then I schedule in work time, then I schedule in quite reflective reading time, learning time, I schedule in all these times and now what I'm left with is a bunch of slots and I say okay here's my slots, then I use an app called chronofy. I think it's free, it's plug-in on my desktop for Chrome, C or ONO, FY or it could be FY, FY, sorry, Chronophoid. I'll put the link if I can find it in the description. So it's Chronophoid, just Google it. I use that. It's like a schedule and tool.
Allows me to then have Windows that are left available
So it allows me to then have Windows that are left available. So if somebody says to me, can you do X? I'll look at it and go, what's the time commitment involved? I'll link to myself. And then I'll send them a link to my Chronophoid. And when they get the link to the Chronophoid, They get to pick a couple of windows on it. And if my available time aligns when they want me to do the project, it plugs it into my calendar. And that's how I stay organized. But I don't have an obligation to fill up every minute of every day, like I schedule things like downtime, like meditation time, like reflective time, like learning, like family time. But these are all so important to me that I schedule them. I don't compromise on them. And if somebody says, you know, can you do X on this date, a look at my calendar and even if it's full of family time, training time and learning time, I'll go, no, my calendar is full. I can't do it. Why this is so important to get a hold of this concept of saying no, because what I see is with clients all the time and this is what I want you to avoid. This is the takeaway. So if you've tuned out and said, right, Anthony's on a rant, this is his weekly rant because I do like one podcast week where I just go on the absolute offensive on a sort of a preachy rant and people keep adding new stuff all the time but never quit stuff. So when they take up something new like cycling train and it's time of year where people are coming in now and they're starting to use our eight week challenge and they're coming in and they've eight weeks. So we're adding cycling training to the mix of other stuff but they were already close to cracking but rather than parking some old commitments and saying no I don't have time for that anymore, to keep adding, to keep adding, to keep adding. What happens when you keep adding cortisol, stress hormone, keeps going up and up and up. At best did all the new cortisol undermines your ability to adapt to this training, but at worst crack started to appear and then what happens you bust complete breakdown and when you bust you don't get a choice what you lose, you don't get a choice what things go to shit. When you fall apart like that the important things can go to shit. Family can go to shit, work can go to shit, training can go to shit. So you end up losing what's important rather than making a conscious choice to park what's unimportant. So what I will ask from you, roadmen, at the start of the week, pull out your Google calendar, take control of your week. Take control of your week now because when you don't take control of your week and you omit to make a decision on this, you leave the decision to someone else to control your week and ultimately what ends up happening is crack and you lose what's important to you rather than making a conscious choice right now to ditch the unimportant. Roadman, thanks for listening and you know what, I'm going to be back again in the hot seat tomorrow. I'll chat to you then. Okay, stop what you're doing, it's Anthony again, I want to talk to you for one second about the next step in the roadman journey. I'm laying down a challenge for you, it's called the 8 week challenge. So for 8 weeks I'm challenging you to be the very best version of yourself, whatever that is. For 8 weeks I want to take you under my wing and I want to personally build for you the customized training plan on our analytics platform. This plan is going to be laser focused on your goal and I'm going to navigate around your life, your work, your social commitments so don't worry about what your circumstances are right now. I remember after I took some time out of cycling and I went off and taught out this Billy Big Businessman I came back and I realized I wanted to get into cycling but I knew after a bit the training alone It actually wasn't making me any fitter. I needed an entire system. It needs a 360 overhaul So for the first time ever I want to share with you this exact system I used it to get back in shape. I'm talking stuff like I'm gonna give you my morning routines The cold therapy I use the cookbooks and recipes I used and even the motivational audios by listening to get back on track. So right now what I want you to do is pause this audio, go to www.roadmancycling.com forward slash eight week or check out the link in the bio, click that. So one more time at roadmancycling.com forward slash eight week. Chatty also.