The 2,500-Ride Rule: Stop Waiting for Perfect
This week, I completed my 2,500th Peloton ride.
That’s a lot of time on a bike that goes absolutely nowhere.
But reaching 2,500 rides got me thinking about something that has very little to do with exercise and a lot to do with succeeding in law school and preparing for the bar exam.
I didn't get to 2,500 because I had 2,500 great workouts.
Some rides were long. Some were short. Some were hard. Some were easy. There were days when I felt great and wanted to push myself, and plenty of days when I didn't have the time, energy, or motivation I would have liked.
But I rode anyway.
And that's the lesson: Never let perfect get in the way of done.
Students sometimes convince themselves that they need the right conditions before they can really study.
A three-hour block of uninterrupted time. A quiet place. Plenty of energy. No other assignments hanging over their heads. The perfect outline. The perfect schedule.
So they decide they'll start later. But later isn't necessarily better.
Later brings another assignment. Another meeting. Another obligation. Another distraction. And that three-hour block you were waiting for may never arrive.
Instead of waiting for the perfect study session, use the time and energy you actually have.
Have 30 minutes? Do 10 multiple-choice questions and carefully review the answers. Have 20 minutes? Practice recalling rules from memory. Tired after a long day? Maybe tonight isn't the night to write a full practice essay, but you can outline one and compare your approach to the sample answer.
The goal isn't to pretend that 20 minutes is the same as three hours. It isn't.
The point is that 20 productive minutes is infinitely more valuable than the three-hour study session that never happens.
That's how you make progress.
No single Peloton ride got me to 2,500. The 60-minute rides counted, but so did the 5-minute cooldown rides. The great rides counted, but so did the mediocre ones.
They all moved the number forward.
Your studying works the same way. You don't master Evidence in one marathon session. You don't become ready for the bar exam in one great weekend. You get there through the accumulation of hundreds of smaller efforts—questions answered, rules recalled, essays written, mistakes reviewed, and hours invested.
There wasn't anything magical about my 2,500th ride.
So, get on the bike. And don't wait for everything to be perfect before you begin. Use the time you have, do what you can today, and come back tomorrow to do it again.
