your sign to just try it

Six years ago, I decided to try a SoulCycle class. I had no experience on an indoor bike. I hated working out. The closest studio was a 30 minute drive from my house. None of my friends wanted to come with me. There were so many reasons why I could have never stepped foot in a SoulCycle studio. What’s the big deal, right? It’s just a workout class. It scares me to think I could have had this mindset and completely altered the path of my life. And, at the same time, it feels silly to say all of this about a workout class on a bike that goes nowhere. However, I stand firmly in the fact that this workout class has had infinite effects on me that stretch from mental, to physical, to professional. And it was all because I decided to just try it, no matter how small it seemed at the time. 

I have been in 200+ SoulCycle classes in the past six years, and they never fail to inspire me. They have taught me the importance of mind-body connection, how strong I truly am, and the benefits of consistently putting one foot in front of another, even when it feels like I can’t go another step. It was so foreign to my seventeen year old self that a workout class could extend beyond the physical realm. It piqued my interest, and I quickly fell in love. 

Since clipping in for the first time, I have gone through many years of eating disorders, excess exercise, and struggles with food and my body. Throughout these times, SoulCycle never once turned negative for me. Running turned into a game of how many calories I could burn. Lifting weights was a direct portal to changing my physique. But SoulCycle was always an outlet. A constant source of joy. 

After taking SoulCycle for a while, I thought, “I wish I could change someone’s day the way that this instructor is changing mine.” I didn’t do much with that thought for a while. I brushed it off. I’ve always been a natural leader, and I like commanding the attention of a room. Of course I wanted to be front and center. But as I kept riding, I could not ignore the pull for me to be up on that podium.

So, my junior year of college, I got group fitness certified. I taught HIIT classes for a year until I saved up enough money to get an additional indoor cycling certification. I completed that and finally started teaching cycling classes. 

During this time, I graduated college and had a job right out of the gate. I was working for a tech startup and teaching classes on the side while still regularly attending SoulCycle. When I got laid off three weeks post-graduation, I felt lost and confused. As my job hunt went from devastating to exciting to devastating again, cycling was there for me. It, again, was a constant source of joy.

Then, a management position opened up at the gym I worked at. I was asked to apply, and I said no. I didn’t see fitness as my career plan, even though SoulCycle and teaching cycling classes had consistently been the main pillars of my joy for a while. 

Thankfully, I decided to apply and as I was interviewing, I fell in love with the position. I started to see fitness becoming the center of my professional world. And as I got the job and started working in it, I have just fallen deeper and deeper in love with working in the health space. It allows me to change people’s days for the better in the same way that so many instructors have done for me. 

And what I can say for sure is that if I had never tried SoulCycle, if I had never fallen in love with joyful movement, I would not be where I am today. I wouldn’t be writing this post. I would have a very different relationship with movement. I would not have this constant source of joy intertwined into my every day experience. 

All of this is to say– just TRY it. Try that thing that you’ve been too scared to do or that you are making excuses for. Whether it’s going to a new workout class, going on a first date, posting your art online, or having a scary conversation with someone. Life is too short to ignore the pull towards new things. You never know where they may lead.  Try new things as often as you can, because you never know which things will morph into something greater.