Why I Cycle to Work (sometimes)

In 2010, I came back to Singapore after my university studies in the US. I now had to fulfill my National Service obligations for 2 reasons: 1) I was no longer living overseas, and 2) I was suay (so many of my peers have escaped being called back for NS! Okay I believe God has His purposes in everything, but I've yet to see the purpose in this one). These obligations included needing to pass IPPT (Individual Physical Proficiency Test - a standardised physical fitness test).

I'm not exactly a fat slob, but physical fitness has never been a huge priority of mine either. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal to have to pass your IPPT - just train here and there and pass it lah, what's so hard? Well, I don't work for the SCDF or Army or any other job that requires me to be physically fit. Rather, I spend my entire weekday slogging to fulfill the demands of my job, which necessitates me sitting dormant on a very ergonomic but nonetheless fat inducing office chair for hours a day - and by the time I'm done with that, I'm exhausted, AND the only muscle of mine that's been exercised is in my fingers. Focusing on passing IPPT every year requires a completely different focus, one which I barely can find the energy to keep. It's like having a second employer (one is bad enough!).

So I forced myself to go to the gym, but then I discovered that not only did I absolutely hate running on a treadmill (my weakest IPPT station is the 2.4km run), but I hated the gym itself - it was stinky, boring, and required a huge amount of self-effort to generate very little exercise.

And here is where I had a huge revelation that I think will help anyone who is trying to keep fit:

For most of us, our most limited resource isn't our time or money, it's our willpower.

I read somewhere recently that willpower is a muscle - and like any other muscle, it gets tired. If any solution you have to any problem requires the unending usage of willpower, you WILL fail because your willpower will invariably be exhausted at some point if you don't allow it to be replenished/rested. I decided it was such a huge waste of willpower to drag myself to the gym twice a week only to exercise for 30 mins at a time - and that includes plenty of downtime in between queueing for the treadmill too. Instead, I'd much rather play a sport to exercise, because sports are inherently fun, and fun is the best antidote to limited willpower. It's a lot easier to get myself to play 1 hr of badminton than to run on a treadmill like a hamster for 15 mins.

Seriously, think about it. Most of us spend our lives criticising ourselves, wishing we would do more, or spending more time with the family, or be more productive, if only we had more willpower. Most of us think that how we feel about it is irrelevant and immaterial ("I don't like doing this, but that shouldn't matter because it's important and I should just make myself do it.") It's a thought process that, I think, is rooted in not just folly but pride; a desire to be able to say that our self-effort is enough to overcome anything outside of our control, including our own unpredictable feelings.

Instead, may I suggest that it is humility to work with the way God designed us. Figure out what would make the task you need to do more 'doable', whatever that means - less embarrassing, more pleasant, more enjoyable - and then use your willpower to make that change so that you can do what you need to do in a sustainable and more enjoyable manner.

So, in the absence of a regular tennis or badminton game, I started cycling to work a few months ago. Not everyday, and certainly not in tights - like Mr Brown, I believe I do myself and the rest of the world a favour by not wearing tights. I can assure you, it's not just satisfying - it's fun. And it's a lot easier to make myself cycle to work once a week (that's 35 minutes of almost continuous exercise x 2 for a return journey) than it is to make myself do 30 minute gym sessions twice a week. In fact, I function quite sustainably on a minimum of biking once a week but a target of twice. In contrast, when I was using the gym, it was a stretch to get myself to go at all - even though I'd "committed" to going twice a week, it wasn't a commitment that I could realistically keep for more than a few weeks at a time.

Moral of the story: I believe God didn't design willpower as a substitute for desire ("I usually don't feel like doing this, but it's okay, I'll just make myself do it") but as a complement to it ("I usually don't like doing X, so I'm going to change how I approach it so it's easier to make myself do it"). If you have a hard time doing something you know is good for you, try to figure out what you don't like about it and see if you can make it more pleasant for yourself.

More on cycling to work in another post soon. Cycling on the roads isn't as suicidal as you might think.