Huffing, Puffing … and Writing?. 5 ways bicycling, or whatever your…
By: Christopher Lancette
Tags: Writing, Cycling, Bicycling, Personal Growth, Writing Tips

Huffing, Puffing … and Writing?

Pausing for a selfie on a great ride. Photo by Christopher Lancette.

I got out of bed one morning about two years ago, took one step down the stairs toward the kitchen, and got struck by a lightning bolt of inspiration — if not also an overwhelming sense of fear — before my feet reached the second stair.

I’ve got to start making immediate changes to the whole way I live my life, starting right now this morning, or I’m going to slip into a depression from which I will never recover. I’ve got to start making greater efforts to get back to writing and storytelling for a living. I’ve got to spend more time outdoors doing the things I love. I’ve got to take action to change the way I manage my days. I’ve got to make 15 other changes. Now!

The full list wrote itself in my head during the remaining 20 steps it took me to reach for my morning bowl of Quaker oatmeal and glass of milk.

The first realization?

I love bicycling, playing tennis, walking by my favorite creek and all kinds of other outdoor recreation, but I used to only do those things when I knew I could be out there for at least three hours — if not all day. Especially biking. Anything less than a 30–50 mile ride felt like it wasn’t worth my time.

Note the use of past tense. Used to.

That morning, as the profound conversation in my head continued, I thought:

I don’t have time for a multi-hour ride today. Too much work to be done. Instead of lamenting that, let’s go for a 60-minute ride and enjoy it. Sixty minutes is better than zero minutes.

Instead of making one of my normal long-distance treks on a relatively flat biking trail, I chose to do just a dozen miles on the road — purposefully seeking the largest hills in my area. I didn’t know how I’d react to a short ride. I don’t think I had ever done one. Would I get the workout I craved? The mental break and battery re-charge?

Selling antiques and collectibles can be fun, but it’s not my mission in life. Photo by Christopher Lancette.

I knocked out my first-ever “power hour” and … loved it! Then I was able to go on and meet the demands of my day — running my own estate liquidation company, a side-hustle that accidentally turned into a gig 10 years ago that wasn’t supposed to last this long. It was just going to be a break in between writing and communications jobs, what I had dedicated my life to until that point.

The company is also the reason I had been so unhappy.

I was not put on this Earth to do that work. I am here, the lightening bolt reminded me that fateful morning, to tell stories that make a difference in the world.

That power hour helped me see the first connection between biking and writing — and you can substitute the verb biking for whatever exercise/sport you love to do.

1. If I can learn to go on short rides on a bike, I can learn to put in short sessions at the keyboard

The same “problem” I had with biking plagued me on the writing side, too: If I couldn’t spend eight straight hours for days on end working on a piece, I felt like I wasn’t putting in good work. I’m used to logging massive hours crafting long-form pieces like one I wrote for Salon about the still-haunting work I do with hoarders and the estates of hoarders who have died in their clutter. That one took years to even start writing, and more years to be able to extract it from my guts and put it all on the page. I wrote it because I hoped it could help individuals and families understand and confront the mental disorder.

Before I learned that first lesson, anything less than eight hours of creating and putting something meaningful out into the universe wasn’t good enough — so I didn’t write very often, which unleashed my downward emotional spiral.

I’m the most happy and fulfilled when I exercise and write regularly.

It was only a short jaunt to the next lesson.

2. Going on shorter but more numerous rides, just like putting in shorter but more frequent sessions writing, means I’m cranking out more miles and more pieces

Whether this meant sending out pitches to national magazines again — even one month was one more a month than I was producing — or even knocking out a quick creative piece for my company’s website, I was at least creating again.

That thinking in part guided me to launching a passion project that I could do on my own with whatever bursts of time I could make available. With my wife’s skill as a photographer and willingness to learn website design, we launched a multimedia site that represents the core of who I am and what I aspire to be again — a man who loves nature and sharing that love with others. A nature writer. I decided to dedicate a part of my life to sharing the awe I feel every time I explore Sligo Creek here in Silver Spring, Maryland.

If I can write a quick post in an hour, or even write a quick something on our Sligo Creek Facebook page or Twitter feed about a great wildlife photograph my wife takes, that would be more writing and creating than I was doing. If that same work can inspire others to get outside and soak in the transformative power of nature, the benefits multiply like ripples in the pond — or creek, in our case.

It’s working. We frequently bump into people on the creek who tell us that we’re inspiring them to start walking the trails more, take up nature photography, and learn more about wildlife.

Awesome.

(Writing prompt: Maybe our site can inspire you to start telling stories about the place in nature you love most!)

As I began to wonder what else I could do in shorter but more regular blocks of time, my thinking propelled me to more amazing destinations. I started taking natural history classes with organizations including the Audubon Naturalist Society and the Anacostia Watershed Society so that I could write more intelligently about the natural world. I began research on what I hope becomes my first book — a few hours of research here, a few there. I wrote my first reviews about nature-related books for the Washington Independent Review of Books. I do love wolves, and Henry David Thoreau. Like I’m seriously nuts for Thoreau.

3. Short but intense training rides sharpen and open my mind just like brisk but tough writing sessions

I now find it relatively easy to get up in the morning, crank out a piece for Medium or another outlet, send it out into the world, and then still have plenty of time to accomplish what’s needed to pay the bills.

The “extra” time on the bike, which frees my mind, acted on me the way mindfulness does on other people. (I’m starting to explore that, too.) It began to open up the space in my head for me to gain some clarity … to develop a vision for what I wanted to do with a return to the creative life, and how I could get there. I launched some strategic networking with various nonprofits. I reached out to a magazine owner I wrote for long ago and asked if I could rejoin his freelance stable. He said yes.

Fellow Medium writer Carla Escritora recently found that hitting the gym opened her mind in new ways in this beautiful essay of self-discovery:

More connections revealed themselves.

4. Physical strength creates mental strength

There is absolutely a connection between strengthing the body and strengthening the mind. My confidence in relaunching my writing career is increasing along with my confidence in climbing bigger, more brutal hills.

The stronger I get physically and the longer I can sit on a bike saddle, the longer I can sit in my chair at my writing desk, too. One of the greatest lines I ever heard about writing came during an episode of the TV show Judging Amy, when grandmother Maxine Gray (Tyne Daly) grew tired of listening to her adult son Vincent (Dan Futterman) spew pretentious complaints about the difficulties he faced as a wannabe writer: Writing is the art of applying the ass to the chair, she told him.

I’ve never forgotten Daly’s words, even if I’m only just now beginning to learn how I can ride my bike to a more creative and fulfilling life.