The Cookie Jar

You won’t find the following in a newspaper supplement, or in very many online resources but for some it might just make the difference between achieving and dreaming when setting your goals for the new year ahead.

First, a little background. 

As I sat on the couch the other evening, sipping a glass of Baileys on ice and eating Pringles and more than one Tunnocks tea cake, a thought crossed my mind. ‘I’m getting lazy and unmotivated. The New Year is just days away and when I write out my goals and ambitions for 2020 is this going to be my reference point?’

There was only one solution to be found. As I got into bed around midnight I set my alarm for 5.30am with a certain amount of determination to make sure that the following day would be a day for setting a decent reference point.

At 5.15am I heard the wind howling outside the window so loudly that it woke me up. The excess of Christmas mindset told me to turn off the alarm before it went off, roll over and go back to sleep. The anticipation of the New Year ahead and setting a benchmark for myself to follow made me turn off the alarm, and get up out of bed.

Shortly after 6am I was out there on my bike heading straight into that wind.

I had it on my mind for a while to do a kind of lap of County Waterford and to ride all of the Coast road. As I set off, I decided today was going to be the day, no matter what the weather was like.

As I reached the 120k mark my legs became heavy and tired. If I was within 10k of home I would probably have turned and headed for that safe haven. Luckily I was over 90k away no matter what way I went so decided to push on with the plan.

My longest spin over the past few months was around 120k, so that was my point of reference. It was where my body but more-so my mind was saying ‘Right, that’s enough, you’re done now’.

You wouldn’t want to pay too much attention to that.

My longest single spin ever was 595k in a day but that was a few years ago, so that reference point was like ink that had faded on a sheet of paper and no longer seemed relevant. I needed a new one.

I was suffering a lot as I rolled along but just kept counting the pedal strokes whenever the pain set in and focused on each set of 5 which would keep me moving forward.

In Fenor I got the hunger knock and just about made it to the Cove in Tramore where I wolfed down 2 chicken rolls and a can of lucozade, which seemed to bring me around again.

Then came the road from Tramore to Dunmore and on to Passage East. The constant barrage of short sharp hills like an Ardennes classic left me feeling as if I would never make it home, but I just about managed to keep on moving forward.

Finally Waterford city offered some respite and once I got to Carrick I knew that no matter what, I would now make it home.

I was cooked and done in Dunmore East but blocked out that from my mind and kept on going. It wasn’t easy but like most things in life it was do-able.

When I finally crossed the threshold of home I had 266km showing on my bike computer. A lot more than the 12okm that my mind and body were telling me was my limit on the day.

This is part of the 40% rule, ie: when your mind and body tell you that you’re done, you’re really only 40% of the way there. 

Now, I have a recent reminder of this to put in my mental cookie jar, and this is the important part.

For anybody setting goals or New Years resolutions for 2020 you need to have a good strong reference point.

If your reference point is being lazy, drinking and eating crap for the past two weeks, what hope will you have of getting up at 5am on a cold and wet January morning to go to the gym, or go out on your bike, or go for a run. You will just roll over and tell yourself that you will do it this evening. Then that evening something important will crop up and you will decide that missing a single day won’t make any difference. But that day will lead to two and then within a week you are back to square one and telling yourself that you’ll do it when the evenings get a bit longer, the weather warms up a bit or whatever other crap your mind can come up with.

It’s on those mornings that you need to be able to dip into your mental cookie jar, know that you are capable of more than you think, know that you are mentally strong and that nothing will stop you getting out of bed and doing your workout. You then get up and go do it.

This then builds momentum in your life outside of the physical. At work you start your day with confidence knowing that you already have achieved something and want to keep that sense of satisfaction rolling, so you push harder to get important tasks done at work too. In your personal life you are more confident and happier with yourself rather than feeling slightly frustrated at your lack of willpower and so you are calmer and easier to live with too.

There is still time this year to go out there and find something that will expand your mental and physical limit. Climb a mountain, go for a long run or cycle. Do something, anything that will give you the sense of achievement needed for you to be able to put it in your own mental cookie jar.

By putting something solid in your mental cookie jar you can make your entire life more solid too.

Happy New Year,

Barry