Little Things Done Consistently
Some thoughts on consistency, the path to achieving goals and little things done over time... Also the 2nd 'bike of the week' feature!
Hi š, happy Tuesday! A big welcome to all the new faces who joined us since the previous article... I am excited to have you & hope you are taking the time to dive in and go through the growing archives?
I have a two part post for you today, starting with the 2nd installment of the all new ābike of the weekā, moving on to some thoughts on consistency, the path to achieving goals and little things done over timeā¦
Bike Of The Week #2
Iām super excited to show you some of the awesome bikes I have the privilege of working on.ā ā For the most part, the bikes people bring to my studio are their pride and joy, no matter how much they cost or how experienced they are as riders, etc. I believe in showcasing all types of bikes, not just the superbikes, because everyone should do bikes differently, in a way that they enjoy, riding a bike that fits their riding goals, personality, and budget. It can be a $25K bike, or a $500 bike, it does not matter! ā
The second edition is a Cannondale CAAD10! Click the button for moreā¦
Focus On the Path
It seems like common sense, right? But its easy to forget about that and focus on the end result alone, especially if the end goal is a big one, and maybe one that scares you a bit.
For the most part, events, long sunny rides, etc are still a few months away (unless you are reading this from the Southern Hemisphere) and I think it is a good time of the year for a few reminders:
There will be up and downs. Progress is never linear
Improvements and breakthroughs are rarely sudden
It's okay to be average. Aim to improve at being average and it will lead to being great
What makes you better? The outcome of the process? Chase the start line, not the end result, and see how it feels when you cross the finish line....
Lets dive into these in more detail.
There will be ups and downs. Progress is never linear and if you get extra frustrated by those ups and downs, you need to find ways to normalize and brush it off. It can be through meditation (or just a few deep breaths), through recording how you are responding to this (ideally in your training journal so its in one place and correlates to your training sessions) or any other way that works for you.
Improvement is rarely sudden. I have had people comment to me before about how someone they know got so much better all of a sudden. Or maybe they noticed their own improvement suddenly, as if a switch just went off...
I hate to break it to you - There is no magic switch that just goes off all of a sudden.
If you look under the surface, it wasn't sudden at all. It was a compounded effect of taking small (even tiny) steps consistently over time... Even if the pattern sometimes felt like two steps forward and one step back. Even if it felt like there was no progress at all for a while. As long as there is consistency and the ability to ride the up and down waves, there will be compounded improvements. Breakthrough is simply something that feels sudden, but actually happens over a long period of time leading up to it.
Average is okay. Bad days and average days happen... It's okay. Realistically, over time, you'll have substantially more average days than good days, so you better get used to it. Of course, how you handle your average and bad days is more impactful than how you handle your good days.
What makes you better, the outcome or the process? Do your goals make you better? Or does the process to achieve your goals make you better? Think about the time it takes to train to achieve your goals as opposed to the time it takes you to achieve them on event day... Even the longest endurance events take less time to complete compared with the time you spent getting to the start line. I invite you to try something different this year. Chase the start line, not the end result, and see how it feels when you cross the finish line...
āØ Little things done consistently over long periods of time become big things... Show up, keep at it and have fun riding the up & down waves.
I hope you found this article valuable and interesting. The goal here was to give you a bit of food for thought and I hope I achieved that. I would love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment below and share this post with others.
Thank you for reading! Until next time,
Noa
Noa- āChase the start lineā is such a wonderful perspective that probably applies to much more than biking. I appreciate this observation-