On Your Bike – The Route To Success
I loved to ride my bicycle. It was a nice way to see the city, but also an economical and healthy transport method. I learned how to ride one when I was four years old and always enjoyed riding in the park or downtown with my friends. As soon as I started college, I stopped riding my bike regularly because it wasn't practical for getting around campus. In retrospect, this was quite a mistake; however, this is not uncommon for many people.
As a faculty member and a professor, I often ride my bike to campus. After having read the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, I have started to consider why I ride my bicycle to and from work each day. After considering various factors, it turns out that riding my bike is not only a means of transportation and exercise; it has become an important part of my routine that I enjoy.
I am a person who feels the need to be productive. While it may not always be productive in the sense of work, I like to feel productive. Most of my motivation to get things done comes from within; however, I quite like when others recognize my hard work and dedication.
When I was younger, one way that I felt productive was through sports. While in high school, I participated in various competitive sports and always tried to improve myself by getting better scores or improving techniques. I remember that during the last year of high school, I practiced a lot of volleyball to improve my hitting and blocking techniques while working hard on my own game.
During college, I started to feel less like playing as much sports because it was not part of the curriculum and I did not have to work on my physical fitness. It was disappointing, but also liberating since it felt like I could do whatever I wanted to do with my free time. However, there was still a desire for physical activity and competition somewhere within me.
I did not run or participate in any sports during my first two years at UNT, despite my initial desire. I was busy with school and had no time to spend to exercise. Eventually, I realized that it was necessary for my health and well being to get out and get into the weight room.
In 2011, during the summer after my second year of college, I participated in a 4-week boot camp sponsored by U.S. Army. It consisted of a physical training (PT) class and a course on Army values taught by an Army drill sergeant. One of the highlights of the camp was getting to run in the mornings.
During the first week, I felt winded after running for just a few minutes, but I kept going by telling myself that it will get easier if I keep at it. In fact, after a couple of weeks, I could run for up to ten minutes at a time without any serious difficulty and felt much better about myself. After five or six weeks, I was running for over 20 minutes at a time.
The physical training and Army values course were not the only reasons why I started to feel better about myself. The Army drill sergeant was very encouraging when working with me and had much patience for my errors and mistakes. It felt good to have someone who counted on you and saw that you could do more. [DISCLOSURE: This is an advertisement. If you open the hyperlink, you will leave the site.]
After graduating from UNT, I started my first full time job as an assistant professor in May 2013. One of the first things that I did was to get into shape and lose some weight. During my previous job, I gained about 40 pounds over four years. It is not uncommon for young academics to gain weight when they start working. I was a bit worried that I may have gained too much weight, but then again and felt hopeful because I was not diagnosed with hypertension or any other chronic disease.
I started to go to the gym in August 2013. As with running, it felt difficult at first and it took me a while to build up stamina. The first couple of times, I could not do any more than 15 repetitions of various exercises. I noticed that I had much more difficulty than other people when it came to lifting weights. I felt like a weakling even though I knew how hard I was working and how much effort I put into every training session.
However, there were others who seemed so much better than me - they could lift more weight or run faster with weights. For the first time in my life, I felt that there was someone or something stronger than me and for a little while, it felt worse than the feeling of being overweight. However, the drill sergeant at camp helped me improve and now, after six months of working out, I have started to notice that there are people who are stronger than me. It feels good to see progress.
After a few months, I have also noticed that I lost about 10 pounds without dieting or starving myself. I simply increased my physical activity and spent more time in the gym.
Conclusion
There are several factors that motivate me to ride my bike and work out. Being productive is one of them. Feeling good about myself is another important factor. Feeling healthy and strong makes me feel positive about the future, especially in terms of what I can accomplish in the next year or so.
I am not sure if all of this would have happened had I not started running in boot camp during the summer after graduating from college.