529IronMan

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Okay, you set your goals and you’re ready to change the world. To shock it. To be amazing. Ready to change your world. Your habits. Your methods. Your life.

I saying you should slow down. Take control and put yourself in slow motion. Don’t rush yourself, head down, into it. But relax and take small, but deliberate, steps towards your goal.

The last couple of weeks I embarked on a quest to become an IronMan and I want to share some key learnings with you guys. Faults I made (for you) so you won’t have to make them.

Hereby I present to you the 6 reasons to take it slow on a new adventure (based on my own experience).

Get adjusted

Don’t ask to much from yourself the first times you take on a new challenge. Give yourself and your body time to adjust to your new life style. This point affects both your physical en mental world. You spend days / months / years building up a habit and it’s very difficult to break the mold radically and to start over. Define your quest, timeline, set milestones, and gradually transform yourself into the defined role. This shouldn’t take months; a sense of urgency is necessary. Your change shouldn’t be radical, but should cover a natural flow to a new stage and style.

Personal experience
I’m taking on running, bicycling and swimming all at once and it’s just too much. Although it’s very tempting to do it all in once I’m noticing that it isn’t the way. I must take it easy and let my body adjust before shifting my focus to another element.

Adjust your patterns

This is based on two principles: you learn by doing and the law of diminishing returns. In the first steps it’s relative easy to grow, learn and progress. By acting upon your goal you will see significant results for the limited time you spend upon your task. In this first stage is critical to play, explore and adjust to find out what works for you. Try to have an open mind and to think out of the box. Later on in this process you will find that it is much harder to break with your routine then in the beginning.

Personal experience
It’s not only training for the IronMan that’s take a bite out of me. I’m learning that I’ve got pay more attention to eating and rest. Both aspects I didn’t really take in consideration when I started. Eat more and better. Train hard, but also take the time to recover. These are elements I have to explore and figure out what works for me.

Leave yourself wanting more

Don’t go all out from the start. Relax and enjoy. Stretch the experience and don’t overdo it. When you eat your favorite meal everyday it won’t take long before it isn’t your favorite anymore. It’s the same with training; build in deliberate moments of rest, try to pace the change and you will find yourself eager to perform. Take it easy and enjoy the ride. Don’t push yourself to the max every time. Build in light and short sets. If you do this you will look forward to each training and not only those in the first months.

Personal experience
Couple of days ago I went out on a run, just a short run of 7,5 which took me 38:38. I wanted more, I wanted to run more then 10km, but I didn’t. Now I felt good, energized and looked forward to the next time working out.

Read

Will Smith said it all: running and reading are the keys to life …. There’s been millions and millions, billions and zillions of people that has live all before of us. There’s no new problem you can have, with your parents, your school, with a bully, with anything. There’s no problem you can have that someone hasn’t all ready solved and wrote about in a book.

Personal experience
While I first thought that I wouldn’t read much into the subject, I’m taking back my words after the first weeks. You want to read more about others, their methods, achievements and struggles. There is so much knowledge and experience available; it’s a shame and a bit foolish if I wouldn’t learn from it.

Stay healthy

This should be your starting point for all the changes you want to make in your life. If you take it slow from the start you learn what your body and mind is capable of; its strengths and its weaknesses. You will explore, define and sometimes stretch your boundaries. If you don’t take it slow, there’s a pretty good change you are going to get yourself hurt.

Personal experience
Three weeks ago I started working out on the bike. After just 2 short rides I overdid it and rode 130km in one day. The following 2 weeks I was bothered with a sore and irritated knee which prevented me from training or otherwise progressing. It was a major set back in my training schedule and a severe demotivator. This brings me to my next point.

Stay motivated

For lots of people it is a great challenge to stay motivated if they do something new like pick up a new sport, write a blog or change a habit. If you follow the points as stated above you will create conditions which will facilitate your success. By taking small, but successful and enjoyable, steps you will create a positive momentum which helps you not to only begin, but also the take the next essential steps.

Personal experience
To begin something is the easy part, to hold on for the whole ride is the difficult part. It’s only been a couple of weeks but I had my struggles (I didn’t knew the above). I’ve set the bar high and I’m not living up to my standard, I want to go harder, faster and be stronger. I want to train harder and longer. I aimed high, but I’ve learned to set and celebrate small milestones. Your training is also a marathon (actually an IronMan) and not a sprint.

Practice, Explore, Adjust, Discover, Read, Learn.

Slow down, stay healthy and ENJOY!