small decisions make habits.
monday, september 2nd, 2024.
A few weeks ago, I changed over to Ride with GPS for keeping track of my mileage. Mostly because my cycling group uses it to share planned routes and it's good to use what they use so I know where I'm going.
Anyway, the daily mileage chart above is something they e-mail to you each month. What a pleasant little treat for my e-mail inbox! I'm excited to see what this chart looks like with a full month of tracking my bicycle rides.
I wrote about my annual aspirations for 2024 around new year's day. I figured it's time for a bit of a mid-year(-ish) check-in. Here's the list of things I hoped to accomplish this year:
- Keep up the cycling and see if I can hit 2,000 miles.
- Get quality sleep. I really thrive with "early to bed, early to rise."
- Eat well. More veggies and less snacking.
- Abstain from things that make me feel crappy: alcohol, social media, etc.
- Read more. At least 15 books, preferably!
- Maintain my environment responsibly, same as last year.
- Be kind to myself and those around me. Don't let cynicism hold me down.
- Say "yes" more— stretch the envelope and have some ad hoc adventures!
- Say "no" when I need to— don't put too much on my plate.
Cycling, if you couldn't guess, is going pretty great. Before I switched over to Ride with GPS, I logged 1,486 miles on AllTrails. Suffice it to say, I think I'm gonna hit that 2,000-mile goal no problem. I've only got ~350 miles left to go and four months left to log 'em!
Sleeping and reading— well, those could definitely be improved. I'm about halfway through 4 books right now, but I've only actually completed 3 books thus far this year. I've been going to bed a lot earlier recently— I'm usually in bed by 9:30pm and wake up, naturally, by about 6:00am. Been waking up in the middle of the night on that biphasic sleep stuff, which has been interesting.
Quality sleep seems to be inversely correlated with my stress levels. On a related note, yesterday I wrote about actually saying "no" when I needed to, so I expect my sleep to improve a bit as I focus inward for a while and recover from burnout.
On eating well: I'm down about 10 lbs since starting intermittent fasting a month and a half ago. Gettin' in shape, friends! 💪
On social media: BLUGH. I had to create a Facebook page for our advocacy organization so I'm back on the sauce. This is probably the one thing I need to be focused on improving the most. It's a hard habit to refrain from!
Finally, abstaining from alcohol has been going extremely well! I haven't had a drink this year and I don't miss it a bit. I have had a few nonalcoholic beers while out and about, meeting folks at taprooms and whatnot. But I don't think trace amounts of alcohol really count when I'm drinking the beverages for the flavor I miss!
Anyway, where am I going with this? Ah, yes! Each goal that I'm on target to achieve has been due to many small decisions that aggregate into a well-formed habit. The good decisions get easier as I keep making them— they get to a point where I almost have to make a decision not to do the thing I want to! It's actually more difficult to take a much-needed rest day from cycling than to hop on the bike for a quick errand to the store!
So, yep! Things are going real well on the annual goals and I've got good habits to thank for my successes, forged in the crucible of small decisions along the way.
Until next time, be well! :)