Checking in and challenging ourselves: what we learn from consistency

Hey everyone! Madison here. As some of you know, I’m the resident data scientist and UX researcher at Mana FLD. Usually, I’m thinking about how technology fits together, or how we can optimize our client processes and experiences. I’m also a PhD candidate in Cognitive Science at The University of British Columbia, where I study human vision and how our brains understand and process statistical information from data displays. In the past, I’ve written about things like the science of financial decision making. But this week, my blog post isn’t technical, and it’s (mostly) not scientific either. Instead, I’ll be sharing some lessons and reflections on my dabbling in new routines, personal challenges, and what I learned from maintaining consistency during this difficult year. 

Before COVID, I had a monthly gym membership that I used to attend group fitness classes, and I liked to run outside. I typically went to my gym at night, after work and before dinner. After class, I would sometimes grab carryout, or meet friends for a sit-down meal and a drink somewhere casual on my way back home. Each week, my work calendar was fairly predictable. The bus I took to and from work ran at the same times each day. I centered my life around meetings and deliverables, but I made some space for my health and wellbeing too. And I enjoyed being active! The whole ritual, I loved strolling out of my kickboxing class buzzing with endorphins, and looking up at Vancouver’s skyscraper windows, luminous against the cloudy night sky, as I decided what to do with the rest of my evening. I slotted fitness into my schedule because I knew I should, and I made it easy at a gym so I didn’t have to think about it too hard. I have chronic sinus problems, so some days I didn’t feel well enough to work out. Fortunately, I could miss class on a Monday and make it up to myself at the same class on Thursday. I knew that any day I wanted to go, the gym would still be there, with the same hours, the same equipment and lighting, two blocks from my bus stop or 15 minutes by car ($4.00 per hour for street parking). This, along with weekend trail runs, was my health routine. I thought it was nice, and convenient. But the thing about convenience is that it allows you to gently coast along, living on autopilot. 

Well, my gentle coasting ended quite abruptly in March, when the COVID pandemic reached Canada and British Columbia went into a strict lockdown. In an instant there was no going to the gym, no eating in restaurants, no grabbing a drink at a bar, no meeting friends, no congregating with strangers, and no leaving your neighborhood. Virtual work replaced my daily commute. Instead of walking to meetings, I clicked into Zoom calls. I haven’t taken the bus since March 16th. Within three months, my gym went out of business and sold its brand to a larger conglomerate. The location I took my fitness classes with shuttered their doors for good. Like many others, my first reaction to all of this was simply to adjust and survive. I worked all day. I started running outside and trying fitness classes in my living room. But some days it rained when I wanted to run. Other days, my partner would want to eat dinner or read a book in the same room that I needed to lay my yoga mat and blast workout videos on my laptop. Our routines unraveled. By late April, my sleep schedule had deteriorated badly to a 3am bedtime (normally it’s 11pm). I injured my hamstring in a sad attempt to combine outdoor distance running with self-led kickboxing strength exercises in a vacant soccer field. I enrolled in virtual physiotherapy. My partner and I grew exhausted in our noisy city apartment. 

Then in July, even as caseloads in BC dwindled, we accepted the fact that the pandemic and virtual work would be sticking around for a while, and so we moved to a small mountain town called Squamish. 

Squamish, BC. Photo by Lukas Schroeder

Squamish is beautiful. Situated between the Coast Mountains and the Howe Sound, it boasts world-class rock climbing, mountain biking, fly fishing, whitewater, and backcountry hiking and skiing. Residents here tend to be super active; how could you not be? The only catch is, it rains a lot. If Seattle is your city-of-reference for “horrible” amounts of annual rain, consider that it rains nearly twice as much each year in Squamish. The majority of this rain falls between September and April, with the highest and most consistent precipitation occurring in the 30 days around November 11th. Luckily for me, I got to settle into my new home in August, which is one of the driest and sunniest months. With my hamstring fully recovered, it was a no-brainer to start exploring the multitude of hiking and trail running options around town. Slowly, I rebuilt my daily life. I fixed my sleep schedule, set up my home office, and for the first time in 5 months, I started to feel some renewed comfort and stability. But the thing about working from home in a cozy office is that you have to find your own motivation to shut off your laptop and do other things.

We enjoyed an unusually sunny September and early October in Squamish this year, which made it easy to get outside and move my body on the weekends. Nevertheless, I was still grappling with the urge to sit at my desk all day and night on weekdays. Like everyone else in North America, my work-life balance and exercise strategy had to change. I was falling out of shape. This realization prompted major reflection #1: that my fitness and health was totally within my own control. My run times were slow and the distances had shrunk, and it was up to me to change that. Without convenience and financial incentive in the form of a gym membership, I had to be self-motivated in these efforts. Without the bus schedules and meeting locations, I had to be in charge of putting exercise on my calendar. I had to plan that exercise for myself, and I could schedule it at any point in the day! Just taking some time to think about this helped me start to pay better attention on my runs, and I tried to make myself get outside at least two or three work days per week. I rediscovered Yoga with Adriene, checked in with myself, and knew what I wanted to commit to. But as it got later in October, the cold rainy days started to arrive. My willpower needed a boost and I knew my work was not complete.

There’s a small running shop in Squamish called Capra that knows about the struggles rain poses for fairweather athletes. So, for the past five years, they have been incentivizing locals to stay active through the wet and cold with a challenge called the Capra November 30x30. Their idea is pretty genius: participants pay $30 to sign up for the contest, then they must run or walk for at least 30 minutes on all 30 days in November. Those who complete all 30 days are rewarded a $50 gift card to their store, and each day of the contest there’s a random prize draw for the remaining participants. You can use a phone or watch to record your activity, which must eventually be uploaded into a spreadsheet for verification. What started as a challenge with 60 Squamish run club members in 2016 has exploded to an online virtual contest, with nearly 2300 international participants, and by now, you can probably guess that I was one of them. At first assessment, the 30x30 challenge looked like my saving grace. I mean, who needs a gym membership when you have an accountability spreadsheet?!  Forget fitness class endorphins...give me the thrill of daily raffle prizes! Plus, becoming a long distance runner as an adult is literally giving yourself a biological makeover. November 1st was a beautiful sunny day, so I ran a few miles on a popular trail in town. So easy! “This is it”, I thought. I was ready to coast along and re-engage autopilot. But the thing about committing to 30 days of outdoor cardio during the rainiest cold month of the year is….uh, yeah...I don’t know why I thought it would be easy either.

Photo by Bruno Nascimento

Commitment and consistency are two of the most difficult and rewarding forms of action that humans can take. Commitment is the opposite of trying something new and exciting. Picking up a shiny new hobby might illuminate ways that we wished we had spent more of our time, the thrill might spark daydreams about our “life unlived”, but consistency forces us to embrace and introspect on the life that we have chosen to live. Here are some of the reflections and lessons that I learned from my own deliberate commitment and consistency towards the end of this year:

Lesson 1: commitment to yourself doesn’t have to be lonely

Day 2 of the 30x30 contest was cold and overcast. I had a packed workday of meetings, and a slight desire to quit the challenge already. Enter major reflection #2: I remembered that you can ask for support. I knocked on my partner’s office door and asked what time his lunch break was. “1pm, why?”, he asked. I had already told him excitedly about the challenge when I signed up, but I didn’t necessarily envision him helping me with it. “Do you want to go for a power walk on the beach trail, for like, at least 30 minutes during your lunch?” I asked. He happily obliged, and I instantly relearned that I can lean on my loved ones, even for intensely personal pursuits (like my fitness goals). My partner ended up really embracing the exercise and time together too, and any day that I couldn’t fit a long run in, he would happily power walk around town with me after dark. I’m extra grateful for the nights that we looked out the window at deep puddles and dark clouds, and he still suited up in Gore-tex and rubber boots to accompany me. 

Lesson 2: crafting consistency means prioritizing your own well being

After my near-quit on Day 2, I vowed to find better ways to stay motivated. From this, I achieved major reflection #3: the realization that I can schedule my life around my health and wellness, and not just jam some health and wellness in the free time outside of work. I expressed this in a simple act: adding “Run Time” to my work calendar. On Day 3, I blocked out a recurring hour long event on every day of the week, time that could not be scheduled over. It was liberating and empowering to do this. I stopped allowing meetings at those times. I committed to myself and prioritized my well being - truly and deliberately, It’s pretty awesome to name and hold your “me time”, and each day when my phone dings with a “Run Time” notification, I am reminded that my health, my goals, and my personal life matter.

Lesson 3: paying attention to one thing carefully will help you examine the rest of your life

By the second week I was in the groove, feeling pretty confident about my ability to complete this challenge. However, there were still some days that my sinus problems would keep me from getting out during my designated “Run Time”. I had established night walks with my partner to keep me in the game on those days, but this inconvenience brought on major reflection #4: true consistency in one area of life can help you tune into other areas. My fitness was improving, but my sinus problems were not. I had hypothesized in the past that the two issues might be related (I thought that maybe my sinuses would bother me less if I were in better shape), but I never had clear evidence to support or refute the idea. Now though, I had a spreadsheet. I could see which days I ran at a time later than my calendar booking. Before this challenge, I actually never realized just how many hours and days I spent feeling unwell. The fact that my sinuses hadn’t improved at all made me realize that I should see a new doctor about them. Sure enough, I was prescribed a new steroid rinse that alleviates most of my symptoms and now helps me feel healthy way more often. Jean-Paul Sartre, an existentialist philosopher, argued that keeping a diary helps us give credit to the richness of our lives, often leading to greater satisfaction. I learned that it can also help us acknowledge what’s less than ideal, which might prompt us to make a change for the better. Activity journaling is an amazing tool for self examination and critical reflection, and keeping a running log helped me think about my general health in a more constructive way. 

Lesson 4: building a routine is painful until it isn’t

In the third week, I found myself hitting my stride. There was still absolutely nothing convenient about this routine - I still had to suit up for rain and mud, but I had logged quite a few cold and soggy runs, and I now believed that I could do it again. This was major reflection #5: things get better and easier with time and practice. My first graduate degree was in Clinical Psychology, and one piece of therapy training that still sticks with me today is the fact that most health routines that yield the greatest benefits in the long term are actually painful in the short term. It’s incredibly important to acknowledge this. Most people will tell you “being healthy is good”, but what if it feels bad? Exercise is a classic example: when individuals are out of shape or new to exercising, the act of physical exertion is highly unpleasant. Studies show that adolescents who are low-active report discomfort and generally do not enjoy high-intensity workouts, even if they also report being proud of completing them. Being proud of completion is typically not enough motivation to do it again, especially because the short-term negatives tend to compound, including the distressing sensation of sweating, muscle soreness, fatigue, and increased hunger. Humans are wired for immediate gratification, so sticking to a new diet plan or a consistent exercise routine is also fighting some of our basic evolutionary instincts! But one proverb rings true here: the only way out is through. Eventually, our bodies and brains adapt. Increasing your VO2 max and decreasing your resting heart rate takes time, but the benefits are tangible and permeate far beyond workouts into daily life. Developing a steady routine aids muscle memory and trust in ourselves. Some people start pairing the positive benefit of workouts with the action (e.g., the endorphin rush) and begin craving healthy movement after a couple weeks. Distance running has been shown to produce an “antidepressant” effect in the brain associated with cell growth in the hippocampus, which is the region associated with memory and learning. Any regular cardiovascular workout routine will also improve life in ways unseen. Exercise decreases the risk of Alzheimers and dementia, improves clarity and focus, and can prevent some of the most common ailments in North America, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancers. It’s especially hard to appreciate the absence of negative experience, but it’s important to remind ourselves about it. For me, practice has not yet made perfect, but it has given me something more important: the trust and certainty that I can get through my next run. Side note: I’ve never regretted a workout after the fact, no matter how miserable it was.

Lesson 5: investing in yourself always pays off

The final week of the 30x30 challenge came and went with little triumph. I completed my distance goal (150 km total, or a minimum of 5 km per day) on day 29, which I was proud of, but I didn’t throw myself a party on day 30. It didn’t feel like a huge milestone; instead it had become my daily ritual. I didn’t want to mark day 30 in any significant way, because I knew there would also be a day 31, and hopefully day 50 and 100 too. I felt great and I believed I could continue to feel better. This prompted major reflection #6: investing in yourself and staying your own course isn’t exciting, but it definitely pays off. Being consistent isn’t supposed to be exhilarating; commitment is mundanely reliable, but it makes everything else in life better. I had learned to prioritize my own needs, to rely on intrinsic motives, and to dance (okay, to run) in the rain and snow, and that was pretty thrilling. Of course accomplishments are fun, and I am very excited to spend my $50 gift card on a new pair of waterproof running shoes, but taking personal joy in my daily experience was the best reward of all. And hey, I’m also stoked to eat some Christmas cookies and call it “fuel for my run” this December.

There were other small positives of this journey that I should highlight: I moved to a quiet and beautiful town, explored and connected with new friends, Zoomed with my family, my partner and I fully furnished and decorated our first apartment together (we had roommates in Vancouver), and I am now saving lots of money without a monthly gym fee. I’m driving less and intentionally moving my body more. I built some incredible self-confidence and strengthened bonds with friends and family, despite facing the immense struggles that 2020 brought us. In summary, I reflected on my old routine and lifestyle, and realized how mindless it was. I still miss a lot of things about the pre-COVID world, but as I look forward to the vaccine and a return to normalcy, I also acknowledge that there are many things I won’t go back to. The final lesson I learned this year was that my old schedule and self-worth was suboptimal, and sometimes it takes an uncomfortable commitment and some hard-earned consistency to make life better. As you ring in 2021, I hope you also take some time to reflect on your accomplishments this year. I hope my short story prompts you to acknowledge or celebrate something in your own life, or inspires you to commit to something positive in the future. 

From all of us at Mana, we wish you a restorative holiday and hope you find some time to practice gratitude and self-love this - and every - year.

Madison is a Cognitive Science PhD Candidate at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Madison leads data engineering and usability at Mana Financial Life Design (FLD). Mana FLD provides comprehensive financial planning and investment management services to help clients grow and protect their wealth throughout life’s journey. Mana FLD specializes in advising ambitious professionals who seek financial knowledge and want to implement creative budgeting, savings, proactive planning and powerful investment strategies. Madison brings her combined background in cognitive science, computer science and clinical psychology with her professional UX design and engineering experience to optimize workflows at Mana FLD and improve people’s lives.