An important truth it took me a long time to find

Dear James, Daniel and Emily,

I grew up in a relatively active family. Lots of family sports. Many of the stories we share will involve games of basketball or football we played. The downside of that is that I built up in my head that the only way to enjoy exercise and physical activity was with other people.

Yesterday I saw an online poll asking: "what is the one thing you would want to go back in time and tell your younger self?" And the single biggest thing that I could think of would be to impress upon my younger self that while playing sports with others is fun, depending on others for your exercise is not a good way to go about your life.

This is not to say that getting your exercise by playing sports with other people is bad. I know people who do that and are able to get most of the exercise they need. But, for a life long fitness it is best to develop some habit that you can do alone. Because there will come a time when that group you play basketball, football, soccer, tennis etc. is not as reliable any more. Or maybe something happens and you cannot match schedules with that group, or someone gets hurt or whatever.

I think the single biggest change that I made as far as fitness came when I realized that it was really up to me to get out and do something active, I couldn't rely on anyone else. I chose running as my thing. But it could be biking, hiking, swimming, lifting weights whatever. The important thing is finding something active that you can do on your own so you always have that fall back.

I would love it if I had the time and a group that I could get together and play frisbee with every day, or tennis or whatever. And I look forward to doing more of that with the kids as they get older. But in the end my fitness is up to me, so I will continue running.