So it was just a combination of being away, wrecking that and a planned 10 days off the podcast, followed by COVID, followed by Christmas and the New Year, but we're back and have some crazy big ideas for the podcast heading into the new year. So, really excited to bring those to you, but don't overwhelm, get to only episode one back for mine, it's good to be back. Right today, I want to talk about new year resolutions and how they're just a waste of time. Obviously, I'm bringing you this podcast, I'm recording it right now, January 2nd, 2022. It's the first time I've said that. I die already every morning and I'm still right in 21 at the end. It's gonna take me a while to slap myself out of that. But getting things this year isn't like material things. They aren't going to make you happy. The secrets are happiness and I've talked at Lent on previous episodes about this. It's progress. Progress makes us happy. Progress stepping up from where we are now. Be that financially, be that spiritually, physically, mentally, on any level, stepping up, making progress, makes us feel happy, makes us feel fulfilled. And the way some of us, or as a society at least, we're trained to view making progress, we see the calendar and it is an arbitrary line in the sand, but if you can make that arbitrary line in the sand walk for you, as many of us do when we take up new year resolutions, and this is something that should be celebrated. You hear people call it a new year resolution or a waste of time. not. I realise you can make changes at any point in the year but New Year's is a nice, you know, it's like getting to the end of a chapter in a book. There's a bit of closure there and then we move on to the next one. But New Year resolutions I find are just so fundamentally flawed because they lack any power, they lack any emotion or they lack really any chance of succeeding and I think 95% of people have broke their New Year resolution within two weeks of of setting that new year resolution. So that's 14 days, so that's 12 days from now. Most people will have broken. And the reason most people break it is, it's just such a wish washy. Oh, I wanna lose a bit of weight. Like how compelling of a vision is that like zero, like that's not gonna get me out of bed in the morning. I wanna lose a bit of weight. I wanna get a bit faster on the bike. So today I wanna talk to you about four steps to create this compelling vision. Because that's step one, the vision has to be compelling. It has to be like a gift, something that you want to wake up early to chase, first thing in the morning, something you can't go to sleep at night because you're thinking about, that it's all consuming, like paint that picture of what that vision is and ride it down. That vision could be, you know, fast forward into June and I'm climbing it hill effortlessly. My jersey's down, I have a lean physique, I can hear my heart rate, my power is at numbers that I've never seen before. I'm dropping my friends over the top of up the wares. That's a vision. That's something to work towards. Not get faster on the bike. And you make this vision big, bold, bright, colorful, with as many emotions and feelings and context as you can. And ride it down. Because something amazing happens when we have this tactile pen to paper. So step one, we create that vision. So that's what we're chasing. Step two, that vision needs to be backed by reasons. Why am I doing this? Because when the going gets tough, these reasons are essential. It's January. If you're listening to this podcast in Orlando, England, the weather gets pretty rough. Plus, you're also going to have work coming back on. You're going to have family responsibilities come back on. And if that's the vision we're chasing to be climbing up the west with the jersey down and the summer dropping our friend, and the last, what is it?
The last horteen cave that atop the tour. If that's the vision we're chasing, why are we chasing that? Maybe at the moment we're carrying a bit of extra weight and we know the links between carrying extra weight and cardiac problems. We've a young family and we don't want to have those cardiac problems later in life. That we want to be a role model for our children, that we want to be a role model for siblings and friends to inspire them to be a catalyst for change in their lives. Whatever the reasons, You need to write these reasons down because those reasons will pull you through some fucking dark dark days. I promise you Number three it we need to write it down and it needs to be reviewed You know I mentioned in step one writing it down, but reviewing it is step three. So every single morning just five minutes You're opening your diary. I like to jot some taut each morning. Anyway, like what am I doing for today? How did the yesterday go? What can I do better? It kind of just helps me, you know conceptualize things when I can get it down on paper But as part of that, I'll open up my little vision page in my diary and I'll review my vision. My vision for the year, let me go through and just read it out and go, am I on course for this? Every single day, you need to review it. Not set one of these, you know, I'm going to lose 10 pounds and then completely forget about it until we break that resolution that we're not going to eat chocolate 14 days from now. You know, that's always doomed to fail. And then step four in this is rituals because rituals are daily habits. That's what they're the small, micro little actions that take us towards this big success or failure moment because success and failure aren't joint events that just show up. They come from poor or good rituals. Failure to check the books ends up leading to financial ruin. Failure to make the right dietary choices ends up on weight gain. So our four steps are create a compelling vision. Make sure that vision is backed by reasons. Step three, write them down and feel it every day. And step four, build rituals for success. People are rewarded in public for what they practice in private. I love that saying, it's like Muhammad Ali had a version of it, like the fight was won long before I'm completely butchering this quote, but it's something about the fight is worn away from the bright lights, it's worn in the parks, it's worn in the gyms, before the sun even rises. Absolutely butcher, but it's a cool quote. You look it up. The idea is that it's these rituals and these small micro daily practices that actually lead to this big public event. So if you haven't taught about your new year resolution yet, I do urge you to have have a think about one now, cycling, you know, it's what connects us. It's why you tune into this podcast. It's what we all love. I love having a cycling goal because it's more than a cycling goal. When you have a cycling goal, it is a goal that just spreads, it's sprinkled, you know, joy into every other area of your life. And I'm moving well on the bike. When I have a cycling goal, I'm leaner. I'm happier, I'm more engaged from off the bike because, you know, we can't get away from the fact when you're cycling that you need to be outside, you need to be in the elements, the sun is hitting you, you're getting vitamin D, there's so much going on that's positive on the bike. So that's why I encourage all of my friends to set a cycling goal because it's just so transformative to every other part of your life. But when you set that goal, build that compelling vision. And obviously if you're looking for guidance on that, reach out, reach out to me, hit me on Instagram with a DM or head over to the roadman, cycling, web site, and hook up a consultation with one of our coaches and you know there's no obligation within you that just talk to the coach and see if it's a fit for you see if they can be you know the co-pilot on your journey moving towards your goal.