Rapha Continental USA Pro Cycling Challenge Stage 1 from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Another beauty from Rapha. Applause…

Indeed, a day for a broad and dextrous waffle from the host of the blog. A day where he can let his mind wander and let you be the recipient of it all. Where all and nothing may make sense as he returns from a week in a antibiotic hum where everything had that horrible taste in there, somewhere. As I am returning to health, so my mind is returning to creativity. I am exercising lightly again and life beyond the tarmac is just easier again.

This morning I read a FASCINATING article about being your best. It perked me up about the tough choices I have to make daily to be my best. That dreaming is just that and that getting there is much harder. It requires a lot more. Dreaming is no good if you actually want it badly enough. If you are happy enough to just dream it – well then you don’t want it badly enough, do you?

As we are planning Epic Unsupported Tour 2011, I am little obsessed with details at the moment. On a trip where a lack of details means possibly sleeping next to the side of the road being the big spoon to an Epic Unsupported Aussie First Timer as he wonders if he`ll make it back to his wife, I need to go the extra step. Considering the route I have in my mind, which is now plotted 99% of the way on the Garmin Edge 705, I am going deep. The trip is 3 days shorter and only 50km shorter, but this year will be a lot more fun. There is a hike-a-bike section on the last day, which I need to go scout to see if I will have rocks thrown at me by this guy for being overly ambitious about what constitutes “adventure”.

Although this trip will never be open to the public (currently the application includes a set of mixed random tasks involving tactical application of your ability to emulate an Alpaca doing Pavarotti on LSD), this year we will be doing live tracking with THIS awesome little toy. Family, friends and yes, stalking blog readers unite, because you will get random SMS at random times telling you where we are (should there be signal). Taking stalking to a new level, you can also track live, at any time, if the device is charged and in reception areas.

Now stop and read this.

While you`re at it, also read this. See – you`re smarter already.

Let’s celebrate some South African’s doing it in style this weekend: Greg Minnaar for yet another win at the World Cup. Ray Tissink for his 2nd at Boulder Peak 70.3. It’s awesome to see the guys flying the flags on the world stage. If I missed someone – please let me know.

Talking of races, here are two galleries you should look at today:

1. London ITU where collectively, the rest of the field must have slept badly knowing how far behind they are. Ali Brownlee is the best triathlete in the game at the moment.

2. Norseman is on my list to race someday. Along with Embrunman. Yes…you think I am stupid, and yes, you are very, very wrong.

+++

Simply beautiful those 2 images and the galleries they link to. Opposite ends of the experience – one very solo, one very much thriving with chaos, but both utterly beautiful in terms of the talent and rockstar performances that came from them.

Me, I am currently searching for the solo moments. Not that this is a new thing. I prefer the quiet to the chaos. I prefer to suffer mildly for extended periods of time, rather than suffer harder for shorter periods. I find this to be true in my work, my sport and in my relationships as well. So much we can learn from the sports we choose, or sometimes, the sports that choose us, seemingly.

Tomorrow is a public holiday. I am doing a full day of training in prep for O till O. Long, slow mileage across 3 sports. Should. Be. Fun.

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image courtesy of Guy with Camera. I had the privilege of touching him on his studio last night. I am still glowing…

Change is the only constant in our lives. Managing the change and trying to form consistency in the world of change is one of the key factors to success. Many people are super scared of what they feel is change, but in reality, I believe the real thing they are scared of is the fear of failure which results from change.

The fear of failure is crippling. In a world where we are laughed at, pointed at and publicly humiliated for failure, its no wonder people are so scared of failure, yet completely uncomfortable in their current situations. The fear of failure is what keeps them from trying to improve their lives. A very scary thought.

We can all affect a positive on this by not laughing or talking badly or saying “I told you so” or “I knew it” when people fail. People will fail. Fact of life. Rather try to affect something positive from that failure for them. Try and find the positive in their experience and highlight that for them. That will lead to them possibly trying again, in spite of possibly failing again.

On that note, Zenhabits had a great post on the elements of change and how to go about change. The fear of failure is a highlight and Zenhabits have highlighted positive ways to clear this fear. Make the change possibly be using these very easy steps to successfully making the change.

The Elements of Change

So what’s the joyous path to making these changes and others? I’ve broken it down into six elements, many of which overlap and have very blurred lines. They’re useful, though, in considering how to make potential changes in your life.

1. Beating inertia. We all have inertia — that resistance to change, especially major change that disrupts our living patterns or way of thinking. Sometimes it’s not difficult to overcome — we can get excited to make a big change and want to overhaul a certain part of our lives. The joyous path, though, is in the middle ground between no change and drastic change. It’s in small changes — as small as possible. Small changes mean it’s not hard to get started, but also that the change is sustainable. If you make a drastic change, there is a great likelihood that it won’t stick very long.

If you’re feeling that inertia, set out to make as tiny a change as you can — just get out and walk for 5 minutes, or start writing or painting or playing your violin for 5 minutes. You can do anything for 5 minutes — it should seem ridiculously easy, but that’s the point.

2. Beating the resistance of others. This resistance can be even tougher to beat than your own inertia — very often people in our lives do not want change. They’ll be negative, or even actively try to stop us from changing. There are various strategies for beating this: ask for their help and get them on your side, or negotiate a way for you to make change without disrupting their lives too much, or if necessary, cut them out of your life for a little bit. Read more.

3. Finding the joy. Here is the key to it all. Forget the rest of these steps if you need to, but never forget this one. Doing something you hate is possible, for a little while, but you’ll never sustain it. If you hate running, you’ll never keep up the habit for long. You need to find the joy in doing the activity, and when you do, you’re golden. So either choose an activity that you love, or find something to love in the activity, and grab on to that.

4. Keeping the joy alive. Joy can be fleeting, and to keep it going, you need to nurture it. This is an art form, and I can’t give you step-by-step instructions here. If I could, I’d be a billionaire, as it would change the world. But some advice: be grateful for your joy, every day. Be in the moment with that activity, instead of having your mind drift elsewhere. Refresh your joy often, by starting over or approaching things from a new angle or doing something a bit differently. Find new people to share this joy with, people who love it as much as you.

5. Celebrating the little victories. We often get discouraged because we’re not as far along as we’d like: we don’t have those six-pack abs yet (after a month of exercise!) or we’re not a full-time blogger yet (after three months of blogging!). But we forget how far we’ve come. Every step along the path is a victory, not because we’ve accomplished a goal but simply because we made the step. Celebrate those steps — jump up and down in joy, scream Halelujah, brag about it on Facebook, post a victorious message in bold marker on your fridge. You rock.

6. Making it a part of your life. Whether a change stays with you forever or not, making a change has value, in the momentary joy you get from doing it, and in what you learn from it. But making a change stick can be a great thing. To integrate change into your life, it must become a part of your daily routine. If you want to meditate, you need to do it at a regular time: right after having your coffee and before showering for work, for example. Having the coffee becomes your trigger for this new habit, and as the coffee is already integrated into your life, it becomes an anchor upon which this new habit will be grounded. The more times you do the new habit after this trigger, and the more regularly you do it, the more firmly it will stick.

And lastly

One last note, to anyone making changes: you will fail. I don’t say that to discourage you, but to release you from the fear of failure … because if you already know it will happen, then there’s no pressure to avoid it. Failure is an inevitable part of change, and in fact it should be celebrated — without failure, we’d learn nothing. Fail, fail often, and learn. Then you’ll be better equipped for the next attempt. Find joy in every attempt, in every victory, in every failure, and the change will be a reward in itself.

‘Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ ~Samuel Beckett

That is all. Off you go. Be brilliant out there…

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Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Jeffrey Tang of The Art of Great Things. I found the article on zenhabits

When we think about simplifying, we usually think about subtraction. Getting rid of excess stuff. Clearing away obligations. Deleting old emails.

We simplify by paring away the layers of something until we find the core. Too many books on the shelf? Give them away, one by one, until you’re left with a manageable number of the volumes you really enjoy.

But decluttering this way is hard. For example:

Do you really want to pull dozens of books off the shelf one by one, trying to decide whether to keep or sell each one?

Do you have the time to go through hundreds of backlogged emails, choosing which to save and which to delete?

And there’s another obstacle. When you’re forced to choose to keep or discard something, uncertainty rears its ugly head. “Can you really afford to throw this away?” it whispers. “Are you sure you won’t need it eventually? Sure, you’re on a simplification kick now – but will you regret it later?” Playing the willpower game with uncertainty gets exhausting.

Simplifying Backwards is Easier

If you’re having trouble deciding when to hold on to something and when to let it go, try doing things backward. Learn to add responsibly instead of subtracting.

I call it the clean-slate approach to simplifying. Here’s how it works, in three steps. (more…)

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‘Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune.’ ~Walt Whitman

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica.

I’m a pretty positive person — I consider it one of the keys to the modest success I’ve had in creating new habits and achieving things in the last few years.

I couldn’t have run three marathons without a positive mindset, nor created Zen Habits, mnmlist, or The Power of Less. I couldn’t have lost 50 lbs., quit smoking, eliminated my debt, or quit my day job.

Positive thinking, as trite as it seems, has changed my life.

I’m not going to sell you on it, but if you’re interested, here’s the condensed guide to changing your own life:

Realize it’s possible, instead of telling yourself why you can’t.
Become aware of your self-talk.
Squash negative thoughts like a bug.
Replace them with positive thoughts.
Love what you have already.
Be grateful for your life, your gifts, and other people.
Every day.
Focus on what you have, not on what you haven’t.
Don’t compare yourself to others.
But be inspired by them.
Accept criticism with grace.
But ignore the naysayers.
See bad things as a blessing in disguise.
See failure as a stepping stone to success.
Surround yourself by those who are positive.
Complain less, smile more.
Image that you’re already positive.
Then become that person in your next act.

Focus on this habit first, and you’ll have a much easier time with any other.

‘A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.’ ~Herm Albright

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So as you would have noticed, there has been a distinct lack of posts from the site in the last 2 weeks. I have been on a semi sabbatical. After a really mad year I needed a time out, and it actually happened a day earlier than I had planned, but I had really just had enough, and got to a pretty low point.

We undertook an epic, unsupported 700km trek through the wild (more posts on that coming, its a life changing story), in pretty extreme circumstances and conditions, but came out with a new smile and a fresh lease on work, life, love, etc.

Before I get fully back into it, I thought to post something from my favorite contributor of the year, Zenhabits.It had to do with sticking to your New Years Resolutions…

‘Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables.’ ~ Spanish Proverb

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Let’s face it: most of us fail when it comes to sticking to resolutions — so much so that many people swear never to make resolutions again.

And yet the rest of us are eternally hopeful when the New Year comes around, believing without any credible evidence that we can improve our lives, that change is possible, that we’re not going to be stuck in the same old rut again this year.

I’m here to tell you that you can do it. It’s possible. I’ll show you how.

The Problem with Most Resolutions
While I love the optimism of New Year’s Resolutions, unfortunately, the enthusiasm and hope often fades within weeks, and our efforts at self improvement come to a whimpering end.

New Year’s Resolutions usually fail because of a combination of some of these reasons:

• We try to do too many resolutions at once, and that spreads our focus and energies too thin. It’s much less effective to do many habits at once (read more).
• We only have a certain amount of enthusiasm and motivation, and it runs out because we try to do too much, too soon. We spend all that energy in the beginning and then run out of steam.
• We try to do really tough habits right away, which means it’s difficult and we become overwhelmed or intimidated by the difficulty and quit.
• We try to be “disciplined” and do very unpleasant habits, but our nature won’t allow that to last for long. If we really don’t want to do something, we won’t be able to force ourselves to do it for long.
• Life gets in the way. Things come up unexpectedly that get in the way of us sticking with a habit.
• Resolutions are often vague — I’m going to exercise! — but don’t contain a concrete action plan and don’t use proven habit techniques. That’s a recipe for failure.

There are other reasons, but the ones above are easily sufficient to stop resolutions from succeeding.

The 6 Changes Method
So what are we to do? I’ve created the 6 Changes Method, along with a new site called 6Changes.com, to solve these problems:

• We only focus on one habit change at a time, so our focus and energies aren’t spread thinly.
• We implement the habit changes gradually, so we don’t run out of steam.
• We start out really, really easily, so it isn’t intimidating.
• We focus on enjoyable activities, so we don’t need “discipline”.
• We have two months to do the habit change, so if something comes up, it’s but a small bump in the road. And because we’re publicly committed, we’re going to get back on track.
• We have a very specific plan with actions built in, using proven habit change techniques.

If you stick with the method, you’ll do much better than you’ve done in the past with New Year’s Resolutions. You’ll focus on creating long-lasting habits rather than trying to reach a short-term goal that fails. You’ll maintain your enthusiasm for longer and not become overwhelmed by the difficulty of change. You’ll have habits that will change your life, and that’s no small feat.

The Method
So how does the 6 Changes method work?

It’s simple:

1. Pick 6 habits for 2010.
2. Pick 1 of the 6 habits to start with.
3. Commit as publicly as possible to creating this new habit in 2 months.
4. Break the habit into 8 baby steps, starting with a ridiculously easy step. Example: if you want to floss, the first step is just to get out a piece of floss at the same time each night.
5. Choose a trigger for your habit – something already in your routine that will immediately precede the habit. Examples: eating breakfast, brushing your teeth, showering, waking up, arriving at the office, leaving the office, getting home in the evening.
6. Do the 1st, really easy baby step for one week, right after the trigger. Post your progress publicly. (Read more.)
7. Each week, move on to a slightly harder step. You’ll want to progress faster, but don’t. You’re building a new habit. Repeat this until you’ve done 8 weeks.

You now have a new habit! Commit to Habit No. 2 and repeat the process.

Further Reading
Read more on creating your new habits for the New Year:

1. Suggest habits. Which six will you choose? Some recommendations.
2. The Importance of Public Accountability. Why it’s one of the foundations of the method, and how to do it.
3. What’s a Trigger & Why Is It So Important? Another key to the method.
4. Why You Should Do Only One Habit at a Time. Answers one of the most common questions people have about the method.
5. How to Be Patient as Your Habit Develops. It’s not easy to do it this slowly, but here’s how it works and how to do it.
6. The Art of the Start of a Habit. Why starting is so hard and how this method overcomes it.
7. How to Kick a Bad Habit. Suggested method that has worked for me in the past.
8. How to Form the Exercise Habit. How to apply the method to the habit of exercise.
9. Key to Habit Change: Enjoy the Activity. Don’t force yourself to do something you hate. Find ways to enjoy it instead.
10. Make Your Habit Change a Priority. How not to let it drop by the wayside.
11. Don’t Worry So Much About Long-term Goals. Focus on the process, not the end point.
12. Why Daily Frequency of Habits is Important. Daily habits are better than ones you do once a week, or even 2-3 times a week.

‘It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop.’ ~ Confucius

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Post written by Leo Babauta on Zenhabits and it was so applicable for a friday I could not leave it out. Have a cracking weekend!

There’s too much emphasis these days on productivity, on hyper efficiency, on squeezing the most production out of every last minute.

People have forgotten how to relax. How to be lazy. How to enjoy life.

Try this: read some of the best books, magazines and blogs on productivity, and see how many will tell you how to get the most out of the time you spend waiting, how to maximize your energy, how to make use of your commute time, how to make every meeting more effective, how to get more out of your workday, how to crank out more widgets.

People are working longer hours, constantly checking their inboxes, constantly focused on Getting More Done.

But to what end?

Are we producing more in order to make more money for corporations? Or to make more money for ourselves? Or just to hold on to our jobs — jobs we might not like anyway?

It’s possible we’re trying to get more done because we love doing it — and if that’s the case, that’s wonderful. But even then, working long hours and neglecting the rest of life isn’t always the best idea. Sometimes it’s good to Get Less Done, to relax, to breathe.

Let’s take a brief look at how to do that.

The Beauty of Getting Less Done
While working long hours and cranking out a lot of widgets is one way to go, another is to work on important things, to create amazing things, and then to relax.

I’m not saying you should surf the web all day, or take naps all afternoon … but why not? Why not enjoy a lovely nap? Why not take a long lunch and then a siesta? Why not enjoy a good book?

I get people who ask me all the time, “What should I do on those days when I can’t seem to be productive?”

My answer: “Enjoy it!”

Sure, we need to produce sometimes, especially if we have to pay the bills, but an obsession with productivity is unhealthy. When you can’t get yourself to be productive, relax. Let go of the need to be hyper efficient. Stop feeling guilty about enjoying yourself.

But what if you can’t motivate yourself … ever? Sure, that can be a problem. But if you relax, and enjoy yourself, you’ll be happier. And if you work when you get excited, on things you’re excited about, and create amazing things, that’s motivation. Not forcing yourself to work when you don’t want to, on things you don’t want to work on — motivation is doing things you love, when you get excited.

It’s how I work every day. I work on lots of projects, on things I really care about, with people I enjoy working with. (See my guide to becoming self-employed if you’d like to do the same.)

How to Relax
It’s funny that I’d even need a section on this topic — how to relax. It seems like it should be something we all know how to do. After all, aren’t we constantly searching for ways to be less lazy? And doesn’t it logically follow that we already know how to be lazy?

It’s possible you already have mastered the art of relaxing. And if so, congratulations. You are a Get Less Done master. All you need now, perhaps, is to let go of the guilt you might feel, and enjoy this relaxation.

But for those of you who have forgotten how to relax, you’re going to have a tougher time. Here’s a hint: don’t stress out about it. If you don’t know how to relax, it’s OK. Breathe. Take it slowly. One step at a time.

Some steps:

* Take 5 minutes to go outside for a walk. Breathe the fresh air.
* Give yourself more time to do things. More time means less rush.
* After work, get outside, take in nature, run around if you can.
* Play. Play like a child. Play with a child. Play when you work.
* Give yourself a day off. Sleep. Watch TV. Eat bon bons.
* At work, give yourself an hour off. Don’t try to be productive. Just have fun.
* Work with someone who is exciting. Get excited about a project.
* Take evenings off. Seriously, no working in the evenings.
* Get a massage.
* Breathe.

Step by step, learn to relax. Learn that productivity isn’t everything. Creating is great, but you don’t need to fill every second with work. When you do work, get excited, pour yourself into it, work on important, high-impact tasks … and then relax.

—
Post suggested by Noemi.

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Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow him on Twitter.

How many times have you gotten upset because someone wasn’t doing their job, because your child isn’t behaving, because your partner or friend isn’t living up to his or her end of the bargain?

How many times have you been irritated when someone doesn’t do things the way you’re used to? Or when you’ve planned something carefully and things didn’t go as you’d hoped?

This kind of anger and irritation happens to all of us — it’s part of the human experience.

One thing that irritates me is when people talk during a movie. Or cut me off in traffic. Or don’t wash their dishes after eating. Actually, I have a lot of these little annoyances — don’t we all?

And it isn’t always easy to find peace when you’ve become upset or irritated.

Let me let you in on a little secret to finding peace of mind: see the glass as already broken.

See, the cause of our stress, anger and irritation is that things don’t go the way we like, the way we expect them to. Think of how many times this has been true for you.

And so the solution is simple: expect things to go wrong, expect things to be different than we hoped or planned, expect the unexpected to happen. And accept it.

One quick example: on our recent trip to Japan, I told my kids to expect things to go wrong — they always do on a trip. I told them, “See it as part of the adventure.”

And this worked like a charm. When we inevitably took the wrong train on a foreign-language subway system, or when it rained on the day we went to Disney Sea, or when we took three trains and walked 10 blocks only to find the National Children’s Castle closed on Mondays … they said, “It’s part of the adventure!” And it was all OK — we didn’t get too bothered.

So when the nice glass you bought inevitably falls and breaks, someday, you might get upset. But not if you see the glass as already broken, from the day you get it. You know it’ll break someday, so from the beginning, see it as already broken. Be a time-traveler, or someone with time-traveling vision, and see the future of this glass, from this moment until it inevitably breaks.

And when it breaks, you won’t be upset or sad — because it was already broken, from the day you got it. And you’ll realize that every moment you have with it is precious.

Expect your child to mess up — all children do. And don’t get so upset when they mess up, when they don’t do what they’re “supposed” to do … because they’re supposed to mess up.

Expect your partner to be less than perfect.

Expect your friend to not show up sometimes.

Expect things to go not according to plan.

Expect people to be rude sometimes.

Expect coworkers not to come through sometimes.

Expect roommates not to wash their dishes or pick up their clothes, sometimes.

Expect the glass to break.

And accept it.

You won’t change these inevitable facts — they will happen, eventually. And if you expect it to happen — even see it as already happening, before it happens — you won’t get so upset.

You won’t overreact. You’ll respond appropriately, but not overreact. You can talk to the person about their behavior, and ask them kindly to consider your feelings when they do this … but you won’t get overly emotional and blow things out of proportion.

You’ll smile, and think, “I expected that to happen. The glass was already broken. And I accept that.”

You’ll have peace of mind. And that, my friends, is a welcome surprise.

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just in time for lunch…

make these 5 clicks to fill your belly filling hour with some useful reading…

1. Psychotactics talks about how to respect the intelligence of the reader. Do I do that for you?

2. Seth Godin talks tactics for going online…

3. Chuckie V says that if it aint broke…. (insert comment here – but read the article first).

4. New Rules has a new rule for you, Go figure! I have yet to see one that doesnt apply to me though.

5. Get fit and go green at the same time? Here, Leo shows you how to do it…

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hey guys and girls.

this week its SA Wine Tourism Conference which I am attending for various reasons.

but that doesnt mean there isnt some useful info out there, for you.

take this, from Zenhabits , yesterday…

You know what you need to do. You know why you need to do it. You even know what steps you must take to get it done. But there’s one small problem: you can’t seem to get moving. It’s a common problem. Maybe it’s chronic procrastination or maybe you’re just so overwhelmed that you feel paralyzed. Either way, the task you must complete is just sitting there, gathering metaphorical (or perhaps literal) dust, and growing more ominous by the day. (more…)

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original post here

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” – Meister Eckhart

Every Thursday is Happiness Day on Zen Habits.

Many days, I try to humble myself and hold a 2-minute gratitude session. I simply sit or kneel, with no distractions, close my eyes, and think about what I’m grateful for and who I’m grateful for. (more…)

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