Small steps towards a more meaningful life

Do a triathlon to get to the supermarket, and other ways to live a more meaningful life. By Jonathan Cowie.

So, how are you getting on with your New Year’s resolutions? If you took the advice of last month’s issue of Outdoor Swimmer (‘Rest & Reflection’), instead of making resolutions you will have spent January thinking about what might make your life full of “purpose, adventure and joy”.

I must admit that I haven’t followed editor Ella’s advice of “Don’t commit to annual goals, don’t think about resolutions or exercise routines,” but I have been thinking about how to live a meaningful life.

January and February can be pretty miserable: cold, wet and grey. It is too easy to wrap yourself in a duvet and hide from the world. It’s a bit like being in a mini lockdown, but without the queues for loo roll.

Lockdown lessons

So, I have been using some of the lessons I learnt from the lockdowns to help me through the dark days of winter. In the third lockdown I set myself 21 rules to live by (also known by my friends as my cult!).

It is a useful exercise – think about what makes you happy and gives meaning to your life, recognise your strengths and weaknesses, and write down some guidelines by which you should live.

My rules include daily cold water immersion, daily exercise, don’t binge watch TV, surround myself with good people and express my creativity. What would your rules be?

I found the first lockdown very difficult; I emerged overweight and in a very low mental state.

I know that winter can push me towards that same place so revisiting my rules has been a useful exercise. Many of those rules have since become habits (daily cold showers get no easier but at least I am reducing my energy bills!) but rereading them was a reminder of the simple things I need to do to put myself in a positive mental place.

Small but meaningful pleasures

I find it useful to have a daily plan to tick off tasks so that I am achieving something every day (no matter how small – it could be meeting a friend for a coffee or hugging a tree).

Breaking down big goals into small steps makes them much more achievable (for example, instead of saying “I am going to do 100 press-ups” break it down into 10 press ups end of week one, 15 press-ups end of week two, etc).

And make it fun! Setting yourself quirky challenges is a good way to keep active in the winter (swim in the smallest body of water you can find, go topless running in the snow, do a triathlon to get to the supermarket).

Some of my challenges for the year ahead are physical (Scilly Swim Challenge), some are to do with personal growth (a solo trip to Thailand) and some are just to make life more full of fun and adventure (converting my van into a campervan). But they all start with small steps that work towards the big goal.

This article is from the February issue of Outdoor Swimmer. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.