After months and months of cycling ...
to you
After months and months of riding on my stationary bike, I finally did it!
I achieved something that took well over a year to do, and guess what? After all that work, I didn’t even care.
Let me explain …
Even as a coach, I’ll be the first to admit that riding a stationary bike … inside … by yourself … is booooorrrrriiiiiiiiiinnnnng! (That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the goodness of boredom is a topic for another day.)
To make my time on the bike more inviting, I listen to a podcast or audiobook. And particularly relevant to this email, I also have my bike hooked up to a virtual cycling app called Zwift, which gives me something to look at while riding, as if I’m riding outside.
In Zwift, it doesn’t take long to notice people on a bike that glows. It’s nicknamed the “Tron” bike, and it’s impossible to not notice …
Of course, curiosity got the best of me, so I looked it up after I first noticed it. Zwift has a “Climb Mt. Everest” challenge – once you ride 50,000 meters of elevation (accumulated over multiple rides), you get the Tron bike.
A typical 45-minute ride, on the routes I usually ride, includes ~100-300 meters of elevation. That means about 250 rides to reach 50,000 meters! And at ~45 minutes per ride, it’s almost just as many hours!
I did it … I completed the 50,000 meters, and here’s the shiny new Tron bike I have to show for it:
Upon seeing that I finally reached that 50,000 meter mark … after hundreds of hours of riding … I thought to myself, wow, I really couldn’t care any less.
What a letdown, right?
Actually, no … I was fine with it because what really matters is those hundreds of hours of riding.
Better energy. Better moods. Better health. Less difficulty staying lean. And better odds of avoiding my family history of diabetes and dementia. That’s what those hundreds of hours have contributed to, and that’s what really matters!
The 50,000-meter challenge to get the Tron bike was just an extra fun incentive to help me get there.
You don’t achieve (and keep) life-changing transformation by doing things differently for just a few months. Instead, you need to establish a new way of life … and keep living it.
Consistency with sustainable habits is how you achieve lasting transformation … and accumulate 50,000 meters to earn a Tron bike.
To maintain that consistency, give yourself as much incentive as you can … even if it’s as silly as a Tron bike. But still stay focused on what really matters. An incentive like the Tron bike is worthless by itself. Its value comes from the much bigger incentives it helps you achieve and maintain.
How can you make better habits an easier and more consistent part of your life?
Which habit would you really like to be more consistent with?
Let me know!
To your success,
Dr. Vin