While I don’t particularly enjoy any sport, cycling and swimming are two physical activities, that appeal to me, and knowing that taking care of my health and fitness is an important aspect of my well-being, I decided to take upon one of these activities and make it part of my daily routine. Swimming isn’t a practical everyday option, given different weather conditions and especially now, given the COVID circumstances. So cycling it was, I have a gym cycle at my place, so until the lockdown was in practice and it was unsafe to go outside, I made a habit of cycling everyday for 45-60 mins at home, and whenever it was feasible I went outside on a real cycle.
LO 1: Identify their own strengths and develop areas for personal growth.
Sports is definitely not my strong suit, and exercising everyday can come off as a challenge at first when you aren’t used to that kind of physical activity, but by pushing myself everyday I slowly adapted to this routine and was able to make it a part of my daily life, along with time, I began to increase my speed and I still continue to do that, slowly and steadily, to keep on improving. I learnt that even though when I started out I didn’t have the stamina required to work out everyday without getting too tired, over time, I’ve developed that, and now NOT working out seems foreign and uncomfortable.
LO 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
Apart from keeping myself motivated especially in the initial weeks of this experience, one challenge I faced was managing my time, an approximate of one hour of workout with aftercare(post shower etc.) takes up a chunk of my day, and with DP already being a taxing course, at times it was difficult to take out enough time for my exercise as well as assignments, and it would often leave me exhausted trying to juggle both. However, with time I learned to develop a balance between both of these aspects, for example, if an important assignment needed more attention at a moment, I would cycle for a comparatively shorter period that day, and give more time to my other commitments, or skip cycling that day, and make up for it on a relatively free academic day. I feel as though now I’ve got quite a grip on both being able to motivate myself to continue my workouts and improving my speed alongside, as well as being able to properly manage my time given academic or other personal commitments.
LO 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Like I mentioned, it was easy to fall off of the habit of cycling everyday, given that it was something I had decided to do independently, without any specific guidance or company, hence to show commitment and perseverance to cycling everyday was extremely important for me to be able to complete this experience, and I feel that the commitment I offered towards this experience also inspired me to keep improving, while i started with cycling 45 mins a day, I can easily exceed that timing now and take it upto 1 and a half hour, given the time I have that day. Making sure that I stuck to my goal everyday, no matter what, also filled me with a sense of accomplishment and pride, especially because I knew this was all me, I was doing it independently, and that feeling was what helped me remain persistent.
LO 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.
Staying fit as it is, is a very essential part of our wellbeing, given how desk oriented most of our days have become, and realising the pandemic falling through all around us, staying healthy becomes a even pressing issue, so that we can keep ourselves and the ones around us safe, my being strong, and maintaining a body tough enough to fit illness, and the covid virus. Cycling everyday not only helped me remain physically fit but working out made me mentally more active and content too, so to conclude, this experience made me a healthier and more well-balanced individual than I was before. And by achieving this level of fitness, I believe this experience also portrayed the SDG that I took into practice: Good health and Well being.

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