Roman today, I want to tell you a little parable a story if you will…
Roman today, I want to tell you a little parable a story if you will 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 long-chered That is the question this podcast will give you the answers my name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roman podcast Rodeman, welcome back to today's Rodeman Cycling Podcast and today I want to tell you a little story and it's about making happiness, about cultivating happiness in a purposeful way. So setting out to mindfully create it and I know that might sound like some new age, hippie bullshit but stick with me. Rodeman before I jump into this new age, hippie podcast, I'll remind you all to head on over Patreon.com. Royal Man Patreon is how I fund this podcast. Your contributions over on Patreon, they not only fund my rock and roll, beer drinking, drug field, lifestyle, they also go to supporting this podcast. So if you can find it in your hearts to make a small donation over on Patreon, they are much much much more well received. The link is down below, Royal Man. So I was able to train a partner during the week and he made just a throwaway comment and It just as it does when you're creating these podcasts every day You're picking up these little treads and you're actually starting to analyze them Maybe a little bit more than you normally would if you weren't hosting a podcast because you're thinking they're gonna be the little gem of content they're in loisages and We were talking about somebody who wasn't particularly happy and he was kind of in a way ending that conversation but in another way open my mind and he said yep my mom always said you stay away from one happy and lucky people. I can start reflect on that and then went digging on the internet black hole as you do i came across a guy who have seen speaking a bunch of times he's brilliant he's an indian academic entrepreneur investor his name is novel. RACA VANT and he speaks brilliantly on the subject of happiness and purposefully creating happiness. Some of the stand-out commentary you had for me was this idea that life is a single player game, that it's entirely gone on in your own head, that we interact with a world that's just colours and sounds and noises and we really get to choose what we make of all that. that and you think about some people and they walk down the street and really the world ends up reflecting you because they walk down the street and if you're one of these people that's constantly judging people he's too fat he's too skinny she's too ugly momentarily you think you feel better about yourself and we see this in cycling all the time with the category system of A4s cast and dispersions down on H2s who cast dispersions down on H3s who cast dispersions and A4s and sporty and you might do it to momentarily make yourself feel happier and more content, but ultimately it serves the exact opposite purpose because it makes you feel isolated.
That's what he, one of his big takeaways was to just stop being so…
And that's what he, one of his big takeaways was to just stop being so judgemental and you get to choose in every single instance how you see something. So the brilliant example he gave was a friend of his wife's they were at a party and after the party She said I'll send you on some photographs And then she dumped like 500 photographs into his WhatsApp and he said at that moment you get to you get to choose two ways of seeing everything He can be like his initial reaction was like what the fuck is she sending me? 500 photographs of the party for I don't want for even her photographs can she not edit them? Can she not go through them and only send me the good ones? But then if you step back from that and you flip the coin and you say, well, the other side of that is what a thoughtful person. She sent on 500 photographs. She hasn't decided to impose her opinion of what the best photographs are on me. She's let me choose the photographs which I think best represent what that evening meant to me. And we get to have this choice, good or bad, negative or positive in almost every instant. And sort of a takeaway all you had from that is, and something you'll notice, you don't have to work on making negative thoughts linger. Negative thoughts automatically linger around. But positive thoughts, you need to recall them and you need to work hard to stay at them because when something's gone bad, it just feels like it's been gone bad forever. But when happiness comes, it's fleeting. So we need to work hard and purposefully to reframe this idea of happiness. I've had this quote before and it's one I love from Confucius and it's a real mic drop quote. He said, every man has two lives. The second starts when he realizes he has just one. Like that's brilliant. I'm going to read that again. Every man has two lives. The second starts when he realizes he has just one. Like I love that quote and I want to finish up today's podcast with this idea of getting to choose how you see things. So when you're faced with a problem in work, when you're faced with a problem with your training when you're faced with an injury. I know it was a listener to the podcast and the song broke his collarbone last week and when you see stuff like that, it's very tempting to go, well, there's only a bad side to it. And this is a story I love. It's a short parable and it's called good thing bad thing. Who knows? So I'm going to read this very, very short story. It's like a 30 second story. There was once a farmer who wanted a horse and had son. One day his horse ran away.
Neighbors came to express their concern
The neighbors came to express their concern. Oh that's too bad. How are you going to work the fields now? The father replied, good thing bad thing who knows. In a few days his horse came back and brought another horse. Now the neighbors were glad. Oh my god how lucky he are. You can now do twice as much work as before. The farmer replied, good thing bad thing who knows. The next day the father son fell off the new horse and he broke his leg. The neighbors were concerned. Now he was incapacitated. He can't help them in the farm and they might starve. The farmer replied, good thing bad thing, who knows? Soon news came through the ward broken out and all young men who were able-bodied were required to join the army. The villagers were sad because they knew that many of the young men would not come back. The father's son could not be drafted because of his broken leg. The neighbors were envious. How lucky, how lucky you get to keep your only son. The father replied, good thing bad thing, who knows? I love that story. It's the power of reframing. and this idea of reframing. It's a psychological technique that helps us to identify and then dispute certain negative thoughts so that you can find more positive alternatives. So I would encourage you to use that idea of reframing next time you're faced with seeming adversity reframing and say good thing bad thing who knows. Roadman, thanks for listening to more of my rambling. I have Johnny Brown on tomorrow. I can't wait for a former US national champion. It's gonna be a cracker because he is a phony bastard. Roadman, I'll see you tomorrow. Hey everybody, it's Anthony again. Really quick, I want to invite you to join, arguably the best thing I've ever put out inside the Roadman community. It's a challenge. It's a challenge called a 14-day Kickstarter challenge. So regardless of where your fitness is at right now, this is gonna be the catalyst for making you faster and making you the leaner. I've created this challenge to take the guess walk out of everything. It's 14 days, training plans, regardless of what your level is. There's Masters Beginner Advanced, there's meal plans shopping list and even a video course holding your hand and talking you true at all. So what I recommend you do right now is just stop everything, press pause on this audio and go to roadmansoycling.com forward slash 14 day or check out the link in the bio that roadmansoycling.com slash 14 day.