Recipe for Goals!

Part one of 4 blog posts

Recipe for Goals!

It’s been a long while since I’ve written a blog post! I’ve been busy since retirement working in broadcasting, giving talks, setting up the Pave The Way charity, and plenty of other bits and bobs. In terms of training, I’ve been keeping fit in the gym, and setting myself cycling challenges all over the place. And the next couple of posts are all about those challenges!

For the first 18 months after retirement I really struggled to get in the gym consistently, I was in training for a World Title fight when I sustained my injury in 2021 so the shift from training to become a world champion, to training for ….some other reason I had not found yet…was a huge transition. I piled on lots of weight, lost my identity and purpose, and felt like I’d lost that part of myself completely. The turning point came when I called my coach, Blain Younis, and told him how difficult I was finding it to stay fit and healthy. He completely understood having suffered an injury which ended his boxing career. He suggested one session a week back in the gym with him, it was just what I needed, (but decided to schedule the first one for three weeks from then as I was at the time eating my 4th chocolate bar of the day and realised I needed to at least do a few sessions beforehand!) And so it began, that one session a week fuelled my other days of training and I was back into a routine and taking care of what I was eating, too.

Soon enough, I was feeling good again, eating healthy, training 6 days a week and feeling energised again. But there was still something missing, I needed a goal. I had no desire to compete against anybody else as I’d had my fill of that thanks to more than two decades of competitive sport. But I still needed a goal, and I found it in cycling. 

I’ve always cycled, using the bike to commute to and from work, and when I played football over in America for 5 years I never had a car, so I mostly travelled around by bike, and I’ve always enjoyed getting out on the bike exploring places on holiday and here in the UK, too. But I’d never done longer distances, and always wondered if I could. Once I started thinking about it, my mind was filled with the places I could go, things I could see, and the challenges I could set myself. There were plenty! Me vs mileage, me vs hill climbs, me v different terrain, me v the elements! And so out came the A3 pad (anything significant in my life, must begin on A3 paper!) Very quickly, I found the exact bike ride I wanted to do, and soon after that, I found the perfect cycling buddy to join me. I had 6 months to prepare, and as soon as I had that goal in mind, training changed completely, it was transformational. It won’t be the same for everyone, but a goal for me is crucial – my drive was back, there was a purpose at the core of my day to day decisions, and I felt something within that I hadn’t felt in a long time. 

The essential recipe for me when it comes to goal setting? Well it starts with a question, and I ask myself ‘can I do it?’ If the answer is a straight forward yes, then it’s something I’ll enjoy. But if the answer is ‘I don’t know’ then I know it’s the right mix for a challenge – I need that combination of fear and excitement. If the thought of taking on a certain challenge scares me, but the thought of achieving it gets my adrenaline going, then I know it’s the one for me. Everybody’s ingredients for a goal will be different, for one individual a marathon will be a big challenge, for another it might be a 5k, likewise some folks won’t want the element of fear and simply want a goal that they know they can definitely accomplish. Perhaps what matters most, is what a challenge means to you, and what it does for you. 

My goals recipe – A sprinkle of fear and a dollop of excitement, lots of preparation on the A3 pad before it all goes into the pan, a big splash of cardio to bring it to the boil, the best nutrients into the pan to help things along, next, simmer with some recovery and tapering, then serve, add a little motivational seasoning, a dash of positive mantra oil, and it’s ready to go, best enjoyed alongside fellow goal setters at the table of challenge seekers! What is your goals recipe? 

Part 2 next week – the challenge!