Editor’s Note: “Over a Beer” is a regular column written by Greg Heil. While Greg is the Editor in Chief for Singletracks.com, any opinions expressed in this column are his alone and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Singletracks.com.
As we begin a brand-new year, we feel like we’re turning over a fresh page, and many people are making resolutions about what they want to do or change about themselves in the coming year. I’ve heard a few different people put forth the idea that we should choose to “become the best version of you” in 2017.
This idea is much more profound than it may first appear. As you frame your goals for 2017, this mindset meets you right where you’re at in the present moment, and enables you to consider how to grow from your current starting point. Because no matter how fresh this new page feels, January 1st is ultimately just another day–but it’s a day where you can choose to make a change.
Too often I think we compare ourselves to the people that we wish we were more like: “if only I had the endurance of Rebecca Rusch!” We want instant success, to immediately be transformed into those people that we idolize and look up to. While I think that all humans have the potential to achieve great things, we can’t make progress toward those grand goals unless we are honest with ourselves about our starting point. Once we’ve identified the place that we’re currently standing, only then can we figure out what the next step is that we must take to move forward. To move beyond our current situation and make measurable progress toward the kind of life that we want to live.
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Being the best version of you takes place one action and one pedal stroke at a time: clipping in and heading out for that ride when it’s freezing cold outside. Skipping your ride and helping your elderly neighbor across the street. Teaching your toddler how to ride a strider. Skipping the triple chocolate fudge brownies after dinner. Speaking words of affirmation into the life of a teenager on your local high school race team. Picking up a Pulaski and helping maintain the trails that you find so dear.
These small steps to becoming the best you imaginable only happen one decision and one action at a time. But on top of that first building block, that first action, you can place another.
And another.
And another.
As you keep adding building blocks to your personal tower, by the time 2018 arrives you may not even recognize yourself!
But it all starts with that first action. There are no short cuts, but the effort is oh so worth it!
For an excellent podcast with the same title, click on over to Tim Ferriss’s blog.
