Avoid the cheap dopamine trap.
20 October, 2023About five years ago I started cycling. Even if at that time I was really into strength related sports, I’ve never really enjoyed any endurance related activities.
But I started cycling a couple miles at a time, then forty then fifty to sixty daily, and this activity has brought much more to my life than I ever expected. Aside from the energy and health benefits, cycling has influenced how I live, lead, and make things. A recent chat with a few friends prompted this summary of what I’ve learned thus far. I hope these realizations prove helpful and perhaps encourage you…to cycle, whatever your cycling equivalent is.
(1) Don’t judge because the context you’re missing is everything. As a naturally competitive person, it is tempting to pace myself with other cyclist I encounter, and you’re liable to judge those you swiftly pass along the way. But such judgment is misleading, as you have no idea when they started or their previous pace. For all you know they’re a pro-tour cyclist on a recovery day. Ultimately you learn, don’t judge anyone at a single point in their journey because chances are you are missing context and will be wrong. Simply respect that they’re cycling. Because, you have no idea and any story you tell yourself is likely a false story. The noise of inaccurate snap judgements will mislead you in work and life. You’re in a lane unique to you, with its own conditions. Stay humble, don’t judge, and focus on beating yourself at your own game.
(2) When you’re forced to unplug, your mind is forced to wander.Our phones, schedules, and constant connection to the world as it happens is a tremendous burden on the spontaneity of our imagination. Even the places who used to be dedicated to just be bored are now spaces of productivity and hyper connection. So, the endorphins released while being on the road on an early morning, paired with the forced period of disconnection, are a godsend for me. If I wasn’t for this self-imposed time of disconnection, I’ll probably be sending emails and making phone calls about many stuffs.
Your creative time shouldn’t be relying on circumstances, find one activity that forces you to unplug and stick with it.
(3) Build a self-love narrative: I’ll often whisper to myself towards the end of a hard training session “Let’s go, you got this, just 3 kms more and we’re done, this is why you’ve been doing all this sacrifices.” This “inner- voice” has changed with the passage of time spent on the bicycle.
The way I used to speak to myself from the way I’ve managed to deal with myself during hard times is the main skill why I think endurance sports forge people character.
I’ve then come to realize this inner voice is what keeps us honest with ourselves and performant across many parts of our life. All too often we think that, if nobody else notices a short-cut we take, that we can get away with it. But your inner voice cannot be fooled. Your inner coach stubbornly remembers everything. And the self-reliance, strength, and commitment to raw truth that result from empowering and respecting your inner voice makes you better. Develop and strengthen this inner voice, because today it can be you on a step hill having a bad time, tomorrow it could be you leading your team on your business through a crisis.
(4) You will get better if you train with people who push you.
There’s a famous phrase in cycling “The best rides are the ones where you bite off more than you can chew and live through it”.
Every time I’ve been on the bike with someone, I know has a better level that myself I’ve pushed myself far beyond every threshold my mind though I was a capable of. Even if when I’ve arrived home with my legs felling destroyed, I rediscover my limits and adapt to a new reality, fact is I am reminded of all the adages around hiring people smarter than you, surrounding yourself with people you admire, etc. This is why. Your pace (and your potential) goes up when those around you not only raise the bar but pace you to reach it.
(5) Riding uphill or through bad weather are where times are beaten, and races are won. Uphill is the hardest terrain — both in cycling as well as bold projects of all kinds. Why? Because you’re working amidst ambiguity, uncertainty, anxiety, and fear. It isn’t a coincidence that the grand tours are won exclusively by the best climbers on the planet.
Those especially difficult periods, where it feels like you’re pedaling uphill against the laws of gravity, are the periods of truly material and differentiating progress.
When I face a 15% climb and my legs start feel the strain, I try to keep the same pace uphill. I remind myself that this is the opportunity to be better. Similarly, I have come to enjoy cycling in bad weather. It’s less crowded, but there’s an extra sensation of hustle knowing you’re one of the few still training and making progress. This is the same sensation I felt managing my business during the pandemic, or when we had social protest in our country without being able to operate logistically any of our production centers. Doing the hard thing makes you rarer because few people do, and doing so gives you an extra dose of much deserved and surprisingly transferable confidence.
(6) Goals are effective even if they’re entirely arbitrary. Any athlete knows that pushing yourself to sprint to an arbitrary marker on the road is an effective way of improving your average pace over time. This is the mental art (not science) of hustle that I’ve found so valuable as an entrepreneur, often pushing myself to “just send ten more customer emails before bed” or “do one more run-through of that strategy document” and other sprints that, over time, vastly accelerated my team’s pace of execution. The extra mile mindset is the one that will differentiate you from the rest.
Hope some of these relate or prompt your own perspective.
Sending my best, -Daniel.
