Growth Mindset Tip #29: Nobody Will Remember Your Strava Feed

<p> Hey there. It's Michael. Welcome to Whole Again, the show that's here in support of the person you're becoming and your quest to live a meaningful life. And since it's Friday, I have another bit of wisdom that I picked up along the way. You see, this year I celebrate 25 years since my last bad day, the day that sparked all of this.</p>
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<p>So each Friday, I'm sharing a little bit of wisdom that I've picked up. I know in the title it says it's a growth mindset tip, and they very well may be But I really see them as lessons I've learned along the way to help me step into the person I'm becoming and to help me live a meaningful life. And since we're gonna go through 52 of these, I know not every one is gonna hit the mark for you.</p>
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<p>I believe that we all have our own Toll House cookie recipe. Some ingredients are consistent, but sometimes we add our own flair to it. So with these tips, take what you think works for you, and then simply leave the rest behind. And today, we're up to tip number 29: Once you're gone, nobody will care about your Strava feed.</p>
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<p>Now, if you don't know what Strava is, that's okay. Stay with me. Strava is a fitness platform, an app if you will. When it was first started, it was a place for runners and cyclists like me to post their rides, sort of social media for endurance athletes. Now you can post almost anything, any type of activity.</p>
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<p>And Strava hasn't cornered the market here. There are plenty of wearables and fitness apps, you probably know many of them, where you can post your activity, and people can comment or like and all that jazz. And as an app, it can be really valuable. You can create routes. You can check out new area to ride in or to run in if you're traveling, and it's a great way to put all your fitness activity in one spot so you can check your progress over time.</p>
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<p>So overall, I think there's some benefit to these types of apps. If you track your fitness, Strava may not be your app of choice, or before this episode, you had no idea what Strava was, and now you know just a bit more. So overall, it's a good thing. But in our quest to create a meaningful life and really step into the person or the people we're becoming, nuance is important.</p>
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<p>So something can be valuable in one way But on the other hand, it can lead us down a path of comparison, or it can fire up that good old ego of ours. The reality is, is that there will always be someone out there who is training more, who happens to be fitter or faster or stronger or whatever you wish to put into that blank space, and this can lead to horrible comparison that shifts our self-talk and takes us into a very dark place of shoulding all over ourselves because we're competitive.</p>
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<p>But most people on these platforms are not elite. They're not professional. We're all just trying to figure it out. Weekend warriors, if you will. Some faster than others, some stronger than others. But when we walk down this path of comparison and shoulding, as the phrase goes, comparison is the thief of all joy.</p>
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<p>Comparing ourselves to others or comparing ourselves to how we think we should be, that one stings almost worse than comparing ourselves to others. But what's not included when you scroll your feed on platforms like Strava is that you don't know what people traded from their inside to look good on the outside.</p>
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<p>All that training, all that time, well, there's an opportunity cost to it. It means that those people are not doing something else, like spending time with family and friends. Heck, their feed may be one big indication that they're simply chasing their happiness. So we don't know what's going on behind the scenes, and this is true for any type of social media, and Strava and these other fitness apps are just another form of this.</p>
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<p>We simply don't know, and we don't know what kind of ripple effect these people are putting forth in the world. Ultimately, are they making the world a better place, not just for some of us, but for all of us? How do they make other people feel? So you might have a pretty impressive marathon time or can lay down a hundred miles on your bike faster than the average bear.</p>
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<p>But if you're leaving, quote-unquote, dead bodies in your wake because you're not so pleasant to deal with, is that the person you really wish to become? Is that your definition of a meaningful life? Personally, what I post on Strava does matter to me. It's a way to capture my activities and share some of my cycling adventures, like my recent trip down from Canada, with others.</p>
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<p>But ultimately, my happiness doesn't shift based on what I post or how people react to it. Because ultimately, we all have to put down our phones at one point or another, and we pass on. And when we do, no one's going to be thinking about what we posted on Strava or any other fitness app. What they'll care about is how we made other people feel, and did we create a ripple effect that led to better tomorrows for all of us, not just some of us?</p>
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<p>As always, thanks for being here. Thanks for listening in, and I hope you'll check out the next episode of the series I'm doing this summer called A Perfectly Imperfect Union, where I'm talking to 102 people across the US about their reflections as America turns 250 years old. And of course, I'll have all new episodes of Whole Again for you next week.</p>
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<p>But until then, remember to celebrate your scars as golden symbols of your strength and resilience, and don't forget to have fun storming the castle.</p>
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<p>And if you wish to learn more about creating beautiful ripples and how to prevent a bad moment from turning into a bad day, please visit my website, michaelobrienshift.com, and sign up for my newsletter called The Ripple Effect. And join us each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday here at Whole Again, and discover how you can heal, grow, and become more resilient, and celebrate our scars as golden symbols of strength and resilience.</p>
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<p>Until then, remember, you can always come back to your breath. You've got this, and we've got you.</p>