The Art of Rituality
Just for a minute, let’s take a step back to reflect on what we’ve discussed before.
In The Athlete we spoke about digging deep into your soul to explore your ‘why’ and the ultimate reason you’re embarking on this journey within the endurance sports arena. We delved into your psyche to ask how good you want to be and what feelings you want to experience. The answers, of course, provide the platform on which to build the mental resolve that is the essential companion to your physical ability.
We progressed onto explaining the rationale and reasoning that sits behind the concept of Goal Setting. We discovered how powerful a tool it is when implemented successfully in our quest for enhancing performance.
But the truth of it is that, while you can set all the goals you want to, achieving them comes down to one thing: rituality.
Your rituality comes from the decisions you make and actions you perform every day. In other words, your habits. In fact, research shows, on any given day, 40% of our behaviour is habitual.
Naturally, it follows that life is defined by your rituality:
How in shape are you?
How happy are you?
How successful do you consider yourself to be?
Your daily actions, along with what you spend your time thinking about and doing, form your person, personality and beliefs.
Rituality is a key component of achieving any goal and endurance sport is no exception; a process of regular practice and routine can be a source of incredible power that is capable of unlocking unrealised potential.
This is rituality compiled from a set of good habits; those formed with the purpose of moving towards a goal you’ve set, however far into the distance it might be.
Bad habits, on the other hand, have a tendency to repeat themselves without requiring conscious thought. And while positive habits stem from a desire to go further and improve, the opposite often isn’t true of those habits that are less healthy and productive. They persist simply because you have the wrong system for change.
Breaking them isn’t easy, but changes that seem small and unimportant now will compound into remarkable results over the long term.
One of the most important things you can do when you’re building rituality into your routine is to focus on the goals underpinning your overall ambition, focussing on who you want to become, rather than what you want to achieve; in other words, your why.
Even if the long term seems impossible, when you bear in mind that it takes 66 days (give or take) to form a habit, positive behaviour change suddenly seems a lot more manageable.
Behaviour change itself is an inevitable, natural occurrence when we begin to enhance our rituality; better habits influence the conscious choices we make for ourselves, too.
To look at it from this perspective is to view it as a positive consequence, but we can also look at behaviour change as an overarching goal in itself, that each improved habit feeds into. In practice, adopting the latter point of view, The Four Laws of Behaviour Change are a simple set of rules we can use to build better habits. They are:
Make it obvious
Make it attractive
Make it easy
Make it satisfying
As well as building these intrinsic motivators, it is important to consider the extrinsic factors that are in play, too. The environment is often referred to as the invisible hand that shapes human behaviour and the places you live, work and train will play a huge role in defining your daily routine.
Within our RÁS Weekenders (our monthly squad training days) and Camps (overseas training experiences), we create the perfect environment for rituality to flourish; one that encourages each of our athletes to embed positive habits within their routine while they’re with us, and to continue once they’re back in the world they inhabit every day.
In fact, rituality is embedded in the RÁS methodology and setting and monitoring habits embedded in each athlete’s training plan. We reward behaviours over outcomes and call out those habits that are holding them back. We share the good ones among our tribe to breed new ideas, fuel discussion and provide constructive feedback.
Like everything we do, when it comes to forming habits we try not to overcomplicate things. So, when we’re looking at how athletes should instil a new rituality into their routine, we adopt The Three R's Framework:
Reminder– the trigger that initiates the behaviour
Routine – the behaviour itself; the action you take
Reward– the benefit gained from the behaviour
One of our favourite examples of rituality came from one of our athletes: they lay out their kit for the following day as soon as they wake up, helping them remove any practical barriers for training and allowing them to be in control of their day well ahead of schedule. Using the Framework, it looks something like this.
Reminder – The reminder comes in the form of completing their daily metrics and checking tomorrows training plan, work calendar and other commitments. Alongside, of course, the weather forecast to ensure the appropriate kit is prepared.
Routine – Selecting suitable training apparel and equipment, workwear, and, potentially, social attire.
Reward – The reward is control and the sense of achievement in starting the day with a purposeful task complete.
The key to rituality is an understanding of the importance that lies in the most mundane of habits, ones you probably don't even realise you have. It's the choices you make, how you spend your mornings, afternoons and evenings, and how you talk to yourself. It’s what you read, listen and watch and everything else you surround yourself with. It’s what you consume physically, mentally and spiritually.
This is what makes the person you become. This is what defines you as an athlete.
Perhaps the most important part of rituality, though, is the mindset that must accompany the change. We learn that though we think big, we must act and live small in order to accomplish what we seek.
Our ambition is not grandiose, but iterative. One foot in front of the other, no matter how easy or hard. Day in, day out.
It's having patience in the process.
That's the RÁS way.