Ayden:

So one thing that I immediately think about when you ask that is that you need to love what you’re doing. With cycling, like a lot of things, you need to be so passionate about it and truly want to achieve the goals you set out. There are a lot of people who may want to get to a higher category in cycling, but most people are unwilling to get up early in the morning for training, go out in the pouring rain to do intervals or even get on the bike when they feel extremely sore

The people who do the best (in cycling, those could be world tour riders and World Cup athletes), before everything else, love the sport that they do more than anything in the world

Second, it’s extremely important to be disciplined. If you have goals that you set, and you outline how you’re going to reach them, you need to stick with your plan as closely as possible. It’s okay to stray from the plan occasionally, but if you’ve set yourself goals and they are important to you, you have to do your very best to follow the plan you set.

The third thing that I think is underrated is that you need to keep it fun! I know so many people who get burnt out of cycling because while they’re disciplined, focused and they love the sport, they forget why they fell in love with it in the first place. I’ve had that before myself! This is something that Brendan (the DEVO U19 coach, races cat 1) has shared with me quite a bit. His secret is that he always tries to throw a bit of fun into all his rides. For me, that could be anything from riding with some friends, splashing through puddles on a rainy, gross day or taking a detour on the way home!

I think those are the keys to being successful, not just in cycling but in anything. Is that alright?

Monique:

I really like your question. The one thing I have been thinking about lately is self-assessment. I wish there was a more fun name for it, but essentially learning how to measure your own progress. I think feedback from external sources (coaches, parents, peers, teachers) are really important, but as I get older I have realized that not everyone knows exactly what my goals and intentions are. For example, when I did my undergrad degree I was also racing, which meant that I sacrificed my grades a little bit. Some of my instructors didn’t understand why school wasn’t my 100% priority, and so if I only considered their feedback, it felt like I was doing a poor job, because they didn’t see all of the other work I was doing that was not related to school. But getting a degree wasn’t my priority, getting a degree while racing was my priority. Now I have a unique perspective that helps me stand out because I did things differently. 

This has been hard to work on, because I love getting kudos and when people tell me I am doing well. But being able to know when I have done “good enough” on something I don’t care about as much, frees up my time so I can do my very best on the things that matter most to me. 

One of the ways I hold myself accountable is through habit tracking, where I track things like exercise and meditation. Sometimes I even track things like texting my parents or visiting with friends if I haven’t been able to see them as often as I’d like. 

The End. Check out the full post here.