Roadman today, I want to talk about how you can set yourself free…
Roadman today, I want to talk about how you can set yourself free when you stop caring about what others think. 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 Roadman Podcast. Roadmen, welcome back, roadmen. Today I want to talk about something that might seem a little bit off topic at the start, but I'm going to circle back as to why this is super important, the idea of how to stop giving a fuck what people think and how this can massively hold you back and how it's potentially a huge barrier for us onboarding new members into cycling at the moment. So this podcast is for somebody. If you feel like you're just stuck, if you feel like you can't make progress in this If you feel like you're maybe getting judged or you're self-conscious about your fitness levels at the moment, this podcast is an absolute most listen for you or if you have a friend in this situation, you can really be a good friend and help them out with a lot of concepts that I'm going to talk about. Guys, before I rock on into the substantive part of the podcast, I am appealing to your better side, to your better nature to support the podcast. The podcast is completely user-funded over on patreon.com. The link is in the bio at patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch the podcast is supported by your generosity. At the moment, if you can't afford to support the podcast, the price of a beer once a month, that's totally fine. You can still listen free of charge with no obligation. But if you can afford to support it, if you can afford to support the podcast with the price of one beer, I'd ask you to head on over to patreon and please do that because that's the lifeblood of the podcast. allows me to dedicate the time into researching these topics, to reach out to the guests and all the other hosting and server calls that I'm digging into my pocket for at the moment. So if you're getting some value I'll ask you to please head on over there. Guys this was something that's this topic and how to stop giving a fuck and apologies for the course and honest I am prone to from time to time. I remember at a very early age and I tried to make it as a soccer player. Well, I don't know what make it means. I suppose when I was growing up when I was a kid all through school, I'd always wanted to be a pro football player. I played every single hour. Like literally from the moment I got up in the morning until the moment I got dark. I played football on the streets, on the fields, wore the bottom out of runners, trousers, everything. I was basically like this probably until I was 17 or 18 and had some limited success with it, but never quite ultimately made that junction to full time pro over in England. But I remember early and I probably would have been 10 or 11 and I'd made us to sort of regional or provincial team and then the team was getting caught again and I had a couple of bad games and I didn't make the cut. And at that point I remember my dad saying to me, you're never as good as they say and you're never as bad as they say. And at the time that was about, you know, I'd been featured in the newspaper a couple of times or something kind of up and coming and want to watch and I've been picked on squads, every time saying, oh, you're absolutely amazing. And then I got caught and it was the criticism of, you know, my game, the criticism, where is that the rate I was growing at. And that kind of phrase of, you're never as good as they say and you're never as bad as they say, that stuck with me then all true to the remaining years of my football. And I just became indifferent to it. And it sent me free in a lot of ways because I wasn't worried about what people taught me. I wasn't worried about having a bad game, having a good game because ultimately I was very confident in my own ability.
Then when I stopped playing football and I went to the college, I…
And then when I stopped playing football and I went to the college, I lost this. And I'm from North Dublin, not from a especially wealthy family, middle class family, unapologetically. And I went into UCD, which was typically a lot more upper class from my degree. And I went in and I was definitely self-conscious about what I was wearing. And I was definitely self-conscious about speaking up in class in case I said the wrong thing or because my accent didn't sound like everyone else. I was self-conscious about expressing opinions. I was worried that my opinions weren't correct, whatever that was. And, you know, thinking back, this is quite rational. Now with the benefit of hindsight and some time on my hands to look back and research some of this stuff, this concept of fitting in and we all try and do it. And it's actually quite, you know, it's quite innate. It's quite built into us because for thousands of years societies we've been built around the idea of tribes and herds and communities. So that human instinct is to fit in. And that worked amazing for thousands of years because that concept of fitting in, it protected us. If you look at any of the David Attenborough stuff, who were like the gazelles that get picked off in the wild? So the ones that get separated from the herd, because when you're separated from the herd, you're weak. And that's what it was like for a long time. You didn't want to separate yourself from the herd because you'd be picked off. But now this new culture of fitting in is different Because the idea of fit-in now is, it's very artificial, it's manufactured and fit-in is, it's maintenance of the status quo. And the status quo goes to serve a 1% that goes to suppress free thought, goes to suppress independent expression. And if you're a reader of any philosophy, like Nietzsche, the great philosopher, and he speaks about the herd animal, something eager to play is sickly in mediocre. And that's what it becomes when we fit in with the herd, when we're a part of that now and we're afraid to express opinions for fear of others, judging those opinions, we become that sickly mediocre, we become that nine to five drone who's just not happy in themselves, who's not contributing to society, who's just ultimately not living that as I speak about on this podcast all the time, life is a daring adventure and nothing at all. And I lost that for a long time. I lost that thing that my dad gave me at an early age, this idea that you're never as good as they say and you're never as bad as they say. I lost that indifference and I started to care what people taught me. And I can't remember the tournament point, but I remember some point around my final year in Kings Inn and Law School. And I just re stumbled on that in an old diary. I've always dioried for years and I remember stumbling on that again, you're never as good as they say and you're never as bad as they say. And I actually just stopped giving a fuck. I decided that instead of spending energy worrying about what other people taught about, how I dressed, what other people taught about, how I expressed myself, my opinions, that I was gonna use that same energy that I was given to them, that fuel, that oxygen that I was given to them, and I was gonna use it to create a life that was adventurous, that was filled of happiness, that was on my own terms. So I decided to just, we call it a complete opportunity switch. vehicle A and I decided you know what I'm moving into vehicle B. Vehicle A was very much the fast track going to law school, getting the job, getting the card I probably called in the Ford for the mortgage I called in the Ford and filling the house with material stuff and I thought that's not for me. That's when you spend your day all day you wake up in the morning you have breakfast you get your work closed ready you go to work you come home you commute home in traffic you get food ready you watch some mind-numbing Netflix TV. There's no bandwidth left for independent off for there's no bandwidth left for criticizing for figuring out what's right and what's wrong with society and imagining a different better version of society a different better version of yourself on a micro level you just don't have bandwidth left on an early stage in my journey i've said i can't do that this vehicle doesn't work for me i need a vehicle where it allows me to have bandwidth so i moved into my own lane And this is not to say that my lane is right for everyone.
Problem in the order lane that I was in, it was always been pitched…
But the problem in the order lane that I was in, it was always been pitched against orders, against their standards. And you can have a right and wrong when you're pitched against an objective standard from someone else. But when I switched into my own lane, there's no right or wrong. It's my own lane. I make my own, it's my own journey. It's my own, it's my own chance to, you know, to find my own past and figure out what I want to do. And that's the reason that I've been able to do things like this podcast on the YouTube video and this was kind of prompt, this whole rant, I love to do one rant podcast a week, don't I? I'm kind of, when I sit down to think about podcast days, I'm like, I'm the only one rant, I'm the only one soapbox. I set up a media company a couple of years ago and I subsequently sold it, but I called the media company soapbox and I love that idea because it was once a precursor to this podcast was the A1 Show and it was a live Facebook show We had a lot of fun with it and a lot of traction with it over two years, but ultimately it never got that sustainability and that's why I push that Patreon so hard on this platform because it might seem like this podcast is gonna be around forever But I've done this dance with the A1 show and it needs to get to that sustainable level Or else the new shiny thing comes across and I love the podcast and I don't want to lose it but when When we were thinking about a name for the the social media company. I was around the time when I was doing the A1 Show and what I love the A1 Show was. It was my soapbox. I could say whatever I wanted. Very much like this podcast and the old idea of a soapbox being something you turned upside down in the market square and you gave yourself the slightly elevated position. And you pitched your ideas to the whole community and they listened or they didn't listen. But it was your little soapbox and although the forum and the medium has changed now, his podcast is my little soapbox again. And when you're on soapboxes like this, like the A1 show, like YouTube, you can't worry about what others think. And when you're in that old lane that I was in where you're preoccupied and spending all your energy wondering and worrying about what people are thinking of you, you can't have this creativity to say, what am I going to talk about today? How am I going to express these opinions? Who is this podcast aimed to touch? Because that's what I want to do with each podcast. It's, I'm almost thinking of one person. I'm like, can I touch this person with this podcast, with this idea and make them change the direction they're on? And I have someone in mind again for this podcast today. But when you're worried about what others think all the time, you can't get this stuff done. After every podcast, after every YouTube video I do, after even a lot of Instagram posts I put out, you'll get haters, you'll get this negativity that comes back. It's a minority, but it's always a vocal minority of people. You can't say that, you can't do that, that opinion is wrong. But what you get when you're in your own lane, it's just this absolute, I don't give a fuck what you say. Because I need to get this opinion out, I know who this is for. And I will balance that with, I don't care what 99.9% of people say, but there's 0.1% of people, and I call them my compass, and I really do care what they say. And they're my family, my girlfriend, the number of close friends, and I really care, like if they're saying to me, Oh, you know, you're off the mark on that. That's out of order. That's wrong. I'll definitely take that on board. And that steers me. That gives me the direction. But the haters, the trolls, like I heard that good one. And Michael Jordan's not in your YouTube comments because people have time for that negativity. They're not the creative ones. And, you know, why I think this is an important podcast and why I think it's an important message for a lot of people is.
When I talked to a lot of clients, one or two clients, and I know if…
When I talked to a lot of clients, one or two clients, and I know if it's one or two people are suffering with it, that there's a lot of people silently suffering, where they don't act on an impulse that brings them happiness because they're worried about criticism. And by this, I'm thinking about a couple of people who said they'd love to get into cycling, but they just feel too self-conscious to wear the cycling kit. And I know the same extension, so many people are self-conscious to go to the gym because it's they feel like it's a place of, you know, Dollyboards from Instagram and muscle lads. And they're scared to go there. And because they're scared to go there and reach out and grab that bit of fitness, which is going to bring them that bit of happiness, they don't do it. And they go into themselves because they're worried about that George month of motors. And so this podcast, it's trying to be that kick up the arse. As you say, give your permission to yourself to go, I don't give a fuck what they think. And I know I'm riffing on some crazy stuff on this podcast from time to time, but this is such an important message for me. Don't care. You shouldn't care what people think. It's so easy to sit on the sideline and criticize. And I want to finish this podcast with one of my favorite quotes of all time. It's from Teder Roosevelt. And it's called the Man and the Arena. And this is a quote that I I'd love to get a printer. I'd love to get a frame that I have it above my desk. I'm going to finish this podcast on this one and I'd like you to take the words from this. Replay this back a couple of times and listen to this quote over and over again. Search it online. It's called a man in the arena. And you know what? Even take your favorite line out of a screen capture the podcast. Tag me in it and put it up on your Instagram stories just so I know what your favorite line from this quote is. The Man in the Arena by Theodore Roosevelt is not the critic who counts. the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who come short again and again, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement. And who at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Roadman, thanks for listening to another Roadman podcast. Mike Drop! 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 kickstart challenge. So regardless of where your fitness is at right now, this is going to be the catalyst for making you faster and making you leaner. I've created this challenge to take the guesswork out of everything. It's 14 days training plans regardless of what your level is. There's a master's beginner advanced. There's meal plans shopping list and even a video course Just hold in your hand and talk to you through it all. So what I recommend you do right now is just stop everything, press pause on this audio and go to roadmancycling.com forward slash 14 day or check out the link in the bio. That's roadmancycling.com slash 14 day.