If you rewind and go back 20 years back, you will probably see the cultural stereotype of a nerdy person in stark contrast with their more athletic counterparts who have made the football team this year.
Fast forward to today and you will very much find the same persisting motif in popular college high school and college folklore. Call it the powers that be, call it genetic memory, we tend to simplify the world and break it down into understandable bits.
Glassy, studious individuals are nerds who lack social skills and fail to see the point of beer pong. Those students who devote their time to sculpt their bodies and dexterity enjoy better social status.
What if we told you that the best individual is a person of both worlds? A perfect student would be someone who manages to cultivate the strength and agility of a jock but also has the humbleness and focus of a straight A-student.
This is none more visible than Ivy League Colleges where students are encouraged to take a physical activity without sacrificing any of their academic acumens. Now, regular universities are asking the same question.
In popular cultures, such as Netflix’s Riverdale, you see muscular youths cast both as type-A students, but also as excelling at extra-curriculum activities and sports. It’s the curse of being born in the 21st century – all eyes are on you and your existence should be verified.
Yet, beneath the hubris and arrogance, beneath the hubbub of Instagram and Facebook, there is something real – and that lies precisely in the fact that athletic and academic performance complement each other; not exclude each other.
Boosting the Brain through Physical Exercise
Think about studying and exercise as the same thing – they ‘both’ have their hardships. To make this example simpler, imagine you are hiring a locksmith. You would expect the company to send you someone qualified to fix your car lock, but also tackle a few jamming locks around the house. You can usually read whether such services are offered on the company’s “about us” page, but for all intents and purposes – you already expect it.
Back to our conundrum concerning physical performance and knowledge, you can expect the same thing. You see, the brain is an organ that needs to be exercised lest it atrophies. The least you engage with complex ideas and concepts, the more your brain starts to reprogram itself so that it dispenses of unnecessary functions.
In other words, you begin to dumb down. Then again, even if you exercise your brain and give it a good brain teaser constantly, you will still notice that your ability to perceive new information has diminished after a few prolonged hours of study – this is the time for study.
Perhaps many of you have seen The Social Network, a brilliant movie shot by David Fincher. The Winklevoss twins’ characters were featured as both academically successful individuals who also excelled at rowing.
And this is not too hard to conceive. But beyond the world of fiction there lies the real world and exercise have been proven to help individuals time and again. Sure, you won’t exactly take on the same challenges as the Winklevoss brothers.
No-one expects you to become an Olympic rower, but if you do think this is a good way to get the creative juices – by all means, go ahead and try. No, for all it’s worth, your part is not too difficult to play at all.
You just need to keep moving and exercising. No more and no less. You will want to keep yourself active – if you are working from a home office, doing some exercise in the morning shouldn’t hurt.
If you don’t feel like exercising at home, then you can simply move on and see what is in store for you. In any event, you can strike a good balance between being studious and athletic. All it takes is routine – which, to many, is a dreadful thing.
As Warren Buffet once said – and we paraphrase – all I use to do my investment is knowledge. Knowledge builds up – like interest. All you need to do is keep reading 500 pages a day. I am sure all of you can. But not many will.
And so, to achieve a goal, you simply need persistence. The majority of the population is capable of learning and exercising – in some form. The thing is not many wills, and therein lies the trouble.