Over the last few months, the famous phrase ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ has been going round and round in my head. No sooner do we begin to put one major challenge behind us, but another quickly appears on the horizon.

We’re seeing pressures on global supply chains cause consumer prices to head for the sky. We’re seeing worldwide logistics havoc and a major increase in energy costs. And of course, there’s always the spectre of one more dance with COVID.

It’s enough to leave even the most ‘glass half full’ among us filled with frustration, fear, anger, bewildermentand negativity, sapping us of our spirit and our creativity.

Back to square one.

After such an extended period of uncertainty, it’s hard for this personal response not to impact our professional mindset, too. Yet we have a place in the world, this wonderful sector of ours.

Consumers are proving this in their buoyant return to our facilities: evidence that the in-person experience, the social connection, will always have a role to play. And within this, indoor cycling goes from strength to strength, rising to the #2 spot globally in terms of most popular in-club class format; in the US, UK and China it’s #1

All of which gives us very real reasons to ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ as we head into the new year. To force out our negative thoughts and choose positivity. Of course, we must all adapt. We must reinvest in our products and experiences. But my personal belief is that – particularly when each of us feels so personally battered by the last couple of years – we should start with ourselves. We can decide to be positive, kind and caring. We can task ourselves with bringing hope, motivation and a much-needed feelgood factor to our members, then gather our teams and inspire them to do the same. We can, as we discuss in the feature The making of a rockstar, give our instructors license to truly connect and entertain.Everything we do must be more consumercentric than ever, more focused on the human touch – on what we bring mentally and emotionally as well as physically.

So my advice? Scrap the normal rules, get all stakeholders involved and embrace their ideas to bring in the change that’s needed. It’s time to unite and inspire. Let’s make this our New Year’s Resolution, so 2022 is the year we truly become people’s ‘happy place’. Season’s greetings to you all.

Uffe A. Olesen
CEO, Body Bike International A/S