5 Mental Habits for Achieving Your Goals in Cycling and in Life

The path towards mastering anything is simple: do it a lot. You must repeatedly practice your vocation to master it. Slowly, this carves out pathways in your brain, creating quicker connections. The trick to achieving your goals, then, is to make practicing them easy. It’s all about building a system that allows you to carry out your practice each day. Here are some habits to help you do so.

Mental Habits for Achieving Your Goals

• Don’t bite off more than you can chew – A common mistake people make is trying to accomplish too many goals at once. Choose one goal to pursue at a time.
• Trim the fat – Not the fat on your body. Rather, get rid of all distractions surrounding your goal. Anything that is not assisting you in moving towards your goal in some way must go.
• Practice self-compassion – There will always be setbacks. The worst way to rebound from a day where you fell behind in your usual strivings is to mentally berate yourself for it. Monitor your mind chatter, note when it’s being a bully, and try to move it towards speaking to yourself in the voice of a trusted friend.
• Act like you’ve already accomplished it – Pretend that you are have arrived at your goal. How would you behave, daily, to maintain this goal? By acting like the version of yourself you want to become, you eventually become that person.
• Be patient – Drastic changes take time to transpire. You’re only competing against yourself, so focus on doing as good as, or better than, yesterday. Do your best to carry out your daily practice to perfection, but don’t worry about it when you fail. If you stay at it, you will make progress towards your goal.

Achieving your goals becomes easier the more you do it. Once you’ve mastered one practice, you know what it takes, so setbacks won’t derail you so much. Even so, when you do have an off day, the above mental habits can help you pick yourself back up.

Joshua Bonnici is a cycling enthusiast and a San Diego personal injury attorney dedicated to bicycle safety and helping the victims of bicycle accidents.