My Trick for Keeping My New Year’s Resolutions

Posted on December 27, 2017 by Syd Schulz

I love New Year’s Resolutions, because #GOALS, but why are they so damn hard?

To be fair, I don’t have trouble making them — I just have trouble narrowing them down and choosing practical ones and not trying to improve everything about myself in one go. And I definitely have trouble keeping them. I love new beginnings because I am a perfectionist at heart and by the time I get to December I feel… stale. My goals are stale. I want new ones! I want to be an entirely new person, and way more perfect and less volatile and just better in all ways. I want to start over and forget all the not so great things that happened this year. New year, new me, or something like that.

But, of course, this sort of thinking is crap, because inevitably I get two hours into the new year and mess it all up right away by not being perfect, surprise, surprise. And then I have to wait another 364 days to get that blank slate permission to start over.

Basically, New Year’s Resolutions are hard because they’re kind of a stupid concept. I mean, making a list once a year is just not how real growth and progression works. You can’t will yourself into being a better human being. And the kind of change that I’m usually seeking with my New Year’s Resolutions (stop being hangry at 4pm every damn day, write a book, stretch more) – it’s not the kind of shit that happens overnight or even in one year. It’s a process. And if you treat your goals like some kind of light switches (“Today I am no longer the kind of person who needs to stare at her phone every 10 seconds!”), you’re going to fail.

I’ve been putting “stretch everyday” on my New Year’s resolution list since, I dunno, two-thousand-f*&king-nine. Except back then it was, “do yoga,” HAHA AS IF. But you know what? Now I stretch like 98% of days. That’s partially because I have to, and partially because I’ve had eight years to think up different ways to trick myself into doing it.

And partially because of a trick I figured out in 2015. You ready for this? It’s bleeping huge.

YOU DON’T NEED THE NEW YEAR TO MAKE RESOLUTIONS. YOU CAN DO IT WHENEVER YOU WANT.

In 2015, I started writing monthly goals. I call them goals, but really they are more like resolutions or tasks. They are what my therapist would call “controllables” but I feel like I have to put that word in quotes because Microsoft Word is giving it a squiggle. They are things that I can do everyday or three times a week or whatever, that will put me closer to what I want to achieve. Macky and I both do this, often together, because HEY ACCOUNTABILITY IS A THING. (Are you the kind of person who never tells anyone your resolutions? If so, stop it, this was me for years and you don’t want to be me).

Essentially, I make New Year’s Resolutions every month. They are often the same month to month, but by revising and tweaking and more importantly ACTUALLY LOOKING AT THE LIST AT LEAST ONCE every month, I’ve found that stuff actually happens. I still write yearly goals (aka New Year’s Resolutions) but the monthly goals are the soldiers on the ground. They are the ones that get shit done. They are the building blocks that go back to the yearly goals. Without this foundation, New Year’s Resolutions are essentially impossible [at least in my experience].

Another bonus to this system is that there is less pressure when you’re setting monthly goals — you don’t HAVE to do this thing, whatever it may be, for a whole year. Maybe it makes sense to focus on one aspect of your life for a few months, and then move to another, depending on the season, or just because oh btw it’s impossible to focus on everything at once. Or maybe you want to try something really ambitious for a month, just to see what happens, but you don’t want it hanging over your head allllll year as that “new year’s resolutions you didn’t do.” With a monthly reset, you may even find out that some of your resolutions were stupid, or didn’t have the effects you were hoping, and then, you get to pick new, smarter ones and make actual, real tangible progress towards your goals. And you don’t have to wait a year to do so.

Oh, and if you’re like me and you still want that blank slate new year feeling? Well, good news, you get it every month.

Photo: Noah Wetzel

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? Do you keep them? If so, what’s your secret?

10 New Year’s Resolutions For Mountain Bikers

Posted on December 20, 2017 by Syd Schulz

I resolve to never ever put my bike away like this again…

Just in case you don’t already have 10,000 New Year’s Resolutions, here are 10 more.

1. Learn a totally pointless trick.

Mountain biking is not only about going fast down sweet single track. It’s also about showing off. So spend a little time learning how to do one dumb thing really, really well.

2. Stop putting your bike away dirty.

I do this all the time but I really wish I didn’t. You’re probably just like me. Let’s say goodbye to dried mud and rusty chains in 2018.

3. Do at least one day of trail work.

Help build a trail, or clear out an existing trail after a storm. It will give you a solid appreciation for the work that goes into the trails you love to ride.

4. Finally figure out what all the knobs on your suspension do.

I mean, SRSLY BIKE INDUSTRY WHY SO MANY BUTTONS.

5. Tackle the feature that has been bothering you for years.

We all have one of these. Make 2018 the year you turn that scary rock garden into “just a little pile of rocks,” or the year your nightmare drop becomes “oh, THAT little thing pssssh.”

6. Laugh when you crash.

Unless you seriously hurt yourself. Then, it’s okay to cry. But most mountain biking crashes are just embarrassing. So, try to remember to laugh at yourself. We all fall over at 0mph sometimes. It’s cool. In fact, it’s better than cool, it’s freaking hilarious.

7. Spend more time on a pump track.

Pump tracks are the bomb dot com. They improve your skills. They make you STRONG. Do enough laps in a row and you’ll get an aerobic workout, too. Plus, pump tracks are just plain fun. There is literally no downside to this resolution.

8. Get a new rider stoked on mountain biking.

Take a total beginner out for a ride. Be encouraging and patient and remind them all the time that THIS SHIT IS HARD AND NONE OF US GOT IT ON THE FIRST TIME OR EVEN THE 100 BILLIONTH. Most of all, get them stoked on bikes and trails and being outside playing bikes on trails. Build our community, one person at a time.

9. Go for a ride with your local NICA team or youth riding program.

I promise you, you will learn something, even if it’s just another reminder of how “look where you want to go, NOT at the cactus” is the most important life advice ever.

10. Start putting your phone on silent when you ride.

And leave it your pack. Or better yet, leave it at home entirely. But if you want it for emergency purposes (not a bad idea), make sure it’s not going to interrupt you a billion times with totally non-emergent bleeps and bloops. Mountain biking (and maybe just life in general) is better when you’re thinking about what you’re doing, and not about how many likes your latest Instagram post is getting.

staring into 2018 like

A Letter to Myself for 2017

Posted on January 2, 2017 by Syd Schulz

Dear self,

I wrote you a letter last year at this time — do you remember that? Are you wriggling uncomfortably in your seat now, because you are remembering and thinking that probably you did not do all the things?

Well, you’re right, you didn’t do all the things, but you did okay. You still can’t do that yoga chataranga thing, but you’ve gotten pretty good on the slackline and that’s awesome. And your bunny hops are definitely better. And you went to three EWS races and did not once cry during the pre ride because you were getting in someone’s way. Maybe you cried for other reasons, but not because you felt like you didn’t have a right to be there — and that’s progress.

Actually, you did better than okay. You didn’t know what 2016 was going to throw at you — if you did, maybe you would have written a different list. But that’s the beauty of not knowing, isn’t it? We make goals, and as life tears them down, we just try to stand through the storm.

So now, it’s a new year, and a new list. Here are your tasks for 2017 —

Remember that bike racing is a privilege. Remember that bike racing is a gift.

Remember that you don’t have to do any of this. You have a choice. You always have a choice.

Remember that even though this year was hard, it was fun, too.

Keep meditating. This will be easy since we all know you have a crush on Andy from Headspace. Yeah, it’s that obvious.

Find the flow. Not all the time, because that’s asking a lot, because sometimes there just is no flow to be found, and sometimes you’ll be racing and thinking about what you’re going to have for dinner or about how someone commented on your instagram in Indonesian and said your face was crooked and you really shouldn’t have bothered google translating it, because now you’re annoyed and really WHO CARES what random-indonesian-dude-on Instagram thinks about your face. But other days there will be flow and you will pluck it out of the air so easily you will wonder why it is you can’t find it all the time and you will feel as light as a handful of puffy cloud floating down the trail and it will be glorious.

Stop using your desktop as a dumping ground for everything you save on your computer. Seriously, stop it.

Say no to things/projects you don’t want to do.

Say yes to things/projects you actually do want to do.

Keep getting stronger. Lift heavier shit.

Listen to your body’s pain signals and don’t be an asshole to your knees.

Take more photos.

Actually do a handstand so you can be cool on Instagram.

Celebrate the things that go right, even on the days when a lot of other things don’t go right.

Give yourself time to rebuild your confidence after this past year. Rushing won’t help.

Cook things that aren’t burritos or pasta at least once a week.

Remember that you don’t deserve results, you work for them. Remember that you don’t deserve sponsorship, you work for it.

Show the fuck up, and everything else is bonus.

Remember that you’re tough enough, and you have nothing to prove.

Train your heart out, but remember that no matter how much you train, no matter how you try to set yourself up for success, you can’t control everything that happens. And that is okay.

Keep doing your thing.

And if all else fails, just say fuck it and have fun.

xoxoxox,

yourself