Over the last 12 months I’ve had a number of failures in terms of reaching goals I’ve set myself. Each time I’ve set myself a challenging target, worked hard for a period of time, had some kind of knockback and given up. This last few months I’ve given up on a number of things and it had become worrying to me that giving up and admitting failure was becoming too easy. Not that giving up is always bad but it was having a significantly negative effect on me mentally that I wasn’t happy about. My badly organised trip to the Mournes is a perfect example of that trend and the negative effect it had on me.

Then I had a lightbulb moment last week when listening to a podcast and coming across the 25% Rule for the first time….

The bigger our goal is the harder it is for our brain to get on board with doing it. So, the 25% rule is take anything that you want to accomplish, cut it in half and then cut it in half again. This should be your first goal at a minimum, you can even cut it in half again.

For example if I want to ride a 200km Audax event then my goal is not to ride 200km, not even to ride 100km but is to ride 50km. Once I have that done then I can set a new goal. My approach last year was to target a 600km Audax event! Any wonder I failed, any wonder I gave up in April, tanked my motivation and haven’t ridden a bike again until recently!

Last year was the culmination of a number of years of spiralling goal failures that totally destroyed my enjoyment of cycling. Each time I would set a big goal, run out of steam during the process, give up and leave myself totally demotivated. Eventually I would get myself remotivated and set a new goal. Learning nothing from my previous failure this would be an even bigger goal, I would “fail” even earlier and leave myself feeling even more shit than before, take a longer break from cycling and eventually I end up not cycling for almost a full year.

I’ve done this with multiple things, cycling and weight loss being the two most obvious and closely linked but I’ve done it again this year with hiking. Earlier this year I decided that I wanted to do some multi-day hiking. Two YouTube friends (Andrew and Ian) did two big adventures last year that were pretty inspiring. Andrew hiked a large section of the GR221 in Mallorca while Ian hiked The Fisherman’s Trail in Portugal.

Both trips inspired me to do some multi-day hiking myself. Some kind of divine intervention must have occurred as it did dawn on me that heading to a foreign country with little to no backpacking experience was probably not the best idea so I came up with a plan to do something similar in Ireland before committing to a foreign trip. I decided that The International Appalachian Trail was a good idea. I have walked some sections of this during other hikes, have wanted to walk more for a while now and it’s easy to access as it’s all within Ulster. I decided on a 3-Day trip (Dungiven to Castlerock) and a 5-Day trip (Portstewart to Waterfoot)

I scheduled the first trip for the end of March and the second for the end of May so the first one is already done. It was a bit of a disaster! My plan was 18km Day 1, 30km Day 2 and 14km Day 3 for a total of 62km. This was nuts! The only day that made sense was Day 3 and there was no way I was going to be able to walk 30km on Day 2 with a full camping setup especially after 18km on Day 1. I made a video of my experience that I’ll link to below but SPOILER ALERT – I gave up on Day 2!

Coming home from that trip I felt crap. I was pretty much for giving up on backpacking altogether and I was in a real funk for a week or two. Listening to that podcast though made me recognise the traps that I was falling into. I was in a mindset that only big, challenging goals were worth working towards yet not recognising the steps along the way that are needed to achieve these goals. I was doing exactly what the podcast guest described and predictably failing. As I said at the top this was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me.

What am I doing differently now? First of all I have totally revised my plans for the IAT in May. Instead of a 5-Day 95km trip I’m now planning a 3-Day 45km trip taking a much more achievable 15km per day average. Instead of walking from Portstewart to Waterfoot I’m only going to do the Moyle Way section from Ballycastle to Waterfoot. I’ve walked this distance in training and I know I can do it.

I’ve also got myself back on the bike! Nothing spectacular but I have a pretty low base that I’m re-starting from. Virtually all my cycling fitness has evaporated and it will take some time to get it back. Instead of setting myself big targets I’m being conservative. My first goal is just to get out regularly. I have a simple 20km loop close to home and my plan is to ride that twice a week (hopefully 3) until I get some kind of legs back again. If I can get myself built up to a 50km ride by the end of the summer then I’ll be very happy but I’m not putting myself under any pressure. It’s time to go back to where I started and maybe remember why I enjoyed cycling again!

I have had this idea in my head the last couple of years that I don’t have time to devote to cycling and hiking, that if I’m going to be really good at either one then I won’t be able to do the other. I’ve now realised that I don’t need to climb Everest or ride 600km in a weekend and that I can enjoy both by relaxing, enjoying the process and mixing them up as much as I can.

Now all I need is a decent Summer to get weather that will make it all more enjoyable…

Link: RTE.ie