How to Make Realistic New Year's Resolutions and Achieve Your Goals as a Cyclist
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Time to read 2 min
The start of the new year is a chance to make resolutions that will improve your life, but most peoples resolutions won’t stick. Setting realistic goals and breaking them down into smaller milestones can help you stay on track and achieve success by the end of the year. Let’s look at how cyclists can set realistic New Year's resolutions and actually follow through with them.
Set an Achievable Resolution
Start by setting a resolution that is achievable and specific. For example, if you want to increase your cycling distance from 10 miles per ride to 30 miles per ride, write it down in detail. Many cyclists track their miles per ride, weekly, or monthly. Choose what works best for your situation and build off of that. This will give you something tangible to work for and measure your progress against. Make sure that when setting your resolution, it should be challenging but still doable within the time frame you have set for yourself.
Create Realistic Milestones
Once you have determined what your resolution should be, create realistic milestones. For example, if you are trying to increase your cycling distance from 10 miles per ride to 30 miles per ride, break it up into smaller increments such as increasing from 10 miles per ride to 15 miles over 6 weeks or 20 miles over 8 weeks, etc. By breaking down larger resolutions into more manageable steps, it will make them easier for you to achieve in a timely manner without getting overwhelmed or discouraged along the way.
Have an Accountability Partner
Having someone who holds you accountable for achieving your goals is vital in order for those goals to become reality by the end of the year. Share your goals with someone who will push you to stay on track and be there when motivation wanes or setbacks occur. Your accountability partner can also be a friend that you ride with and tackle the goal together. Having an accountability partner also provides support and encouragement when hitting those milestones feels like it’s getting harder than expected or becomes too difficult alone.
Track Your Progress & Stay Motivated
Tracking progress is key in achieving long-term success with any resolution, as it allows you to gauge where things stand each step of the way towards achieving that big goal at year’s end. Tracking progress also helps keep motivation high throughout the entire process—seeing small successes can often lead to greater ones down the line. Utilize tools such as apps or journals (Strava, Garmin) that allow easy tracking of progress so that reviewing progress isn't overwhelming or intimidating in any way!
Setting achievable New Year's resolutions can help cyclists reach their full potential this upcoming year! Start by setting a clear goal; break it down into more manageable chunks; find an accountability partner who will challenge and motivate; then track your progress along the way! With these strategies in place, achieving those goals just became much easier! Good luck this upcoming year – here’s hoping that all of us reach our fullest potential as cyclists and have as more fun on our bikes than this year!
