Dr. Seuss and Keeping It Playful

Yesterday my 6 year old niece ran up to me and said with excitement, "I just read TWO Dr. Seuss books! It was so much fun I think I'll read a third one."

I smiled and thought, "That's it. She's got it."

The trick is not to force a child to read, but to make reading so much fun that she wants to read. The genius of The Cat in the Hat is that it has less than 300 unique, simple words arranged in fun and memorable ways that most first graders can understand. Dr. Seuss kept things simple, he kept things fun, and along the way showed generations of children that reading is awesome.

Exercise is no different. There is little benefit in forcing yourself to read a bad or boring book, similarly there is little benefit in getting out the door and grinding through a workout you don't want to do. The trick is to make training so simple and fun that you want to get outside and workout. When you find yourself excited to read a good book you truly absorb the information within its pages. It's the same with training- when you're excited to exercise, you're more able to absorb all the benefits of the training itself.

Be wary of metrics that interfere with your enjoyment of the activity itself. Would knowing how many words you're reading per minute actually help you enjoy the book? Probably not. Nor would it help you understand the material. Does knowing your speed, pace, or heart rate during the exercise help you enjoy the activity? Probably not. It may be interesting, but it ultimately distracts your focus from what really matters: having fun in the moment.

Keep it simple. Keep it playful. That's the trick.

Antonio Gonzalez

Tri Town Bicycles