Finding the best athletic activity to compliment your lifestyle is a little like a Cinderella story, the shoe has to fit!
When I first decided to make daily activity a part of my life I tried on A LOT OF DIFFERENT SHOES!!
I tried running, kayaking, biking, snowboarding, and one I'll certainly never forget: Hap Ki Do.
I was on a diet, got a new hair cut, and new clothes. "New" me was ready for my "new" physical hobby, and I signed up for the *adult* class at a local Hap Ki Do studio. If you've never heard of it, it's a martial art; I thought the movements would be fun, make me fit, and there was a certain somber discipline to it that intrigued me. When I arrived to class, however, I found no adults. I spent an entire hour somersaulting amongst children before punching and kicking at them whilst they held a kick mat. It was a little hard to "give it all I had" when I thought I was going to karate kick them across the room. I was seriously ready to leave when the instructor called me into the back room and gave me the used car salesman pitch to end all pitches.
When he finished, I was seriously considering joining the gym, even though I didn't have a good experience. I didn't have fun, I had no peers there to share it with, and I felt silly and out of place the entire time. He was selling me on it hard, though, and without any hobbies or interests of my own, he really made it sound like a great deal and something that would fill the #athlete void in my life.
He almost talked me in to it, but somewhere deep inside I knew it wasn't for me.
I knew the shoe didn't fit.
I left the studio, never to return. It would be a year before I found stand up paddling, made life-long friends, and built my career out of it. It was a long an uncertain time, filled with more activities that didn't stick. But somewhere deep inside, I longed to move every day. I knew I wanted something in my life that contributed to my health and longevity, improved my mood, and brought me confidence. I didn't want it to be something someone sold to me, something that someone else assured would make me happy - I needed to discover it for myself. I needed to set my own #agenda.