Can paddling improve your life?

No. It can't. At least not by itself.

Epictetus, the stoic philosopher, said "Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents.”

In this same vein, don’t just say you have trained for sport. Show that through it, you have learned to think better, to move better, to eat better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Daily movement keeps the organism healthy, in mind body and spirit. It would be a mistake to suppose that you have made progress by simply going through the motions. It would be a waste to spend all of that time to become an athlete and not develop health of spirit.