In the end, when I thought about their answers, my own experiences and those I have read about I came up with three principles for becoming an active person along with some convincing reasons for why you should do so.

The first step in becoming physically active is to change your personal outlook on exercise. Not a single one of the people I talked to or read about viewed exercise as a dreaded or optional task, rather they all saw it as necessary and desirable. Seeing exercise as a necessary part of life will make routinizing it easier and more compelling.

So carve some time out of your schedule for exercise, stick to it for a little while and pretty soon your day won’t feel complete without it. Sometimes you will have more time and sometimes less, but as life goes on you will most likely only get busier so take the time now to begin a lifetime of well-being.

Even with this new outlook, though, staying motivated can be a hurdle but you can get over this obstacle if you just make your physical activity fun and friendly. In talking to everyone from triathletes to sword fighters, I found those who stick to their activities the best are those who see their exercise first as a source of fun. After finding a fun activity, the second part for these people was finding friends to do that activity with.

This was especially apparent in the MSU Outdoors Club, an active bunch who gleans endorphins from group activities like white water rafting and rock climbing. Now, I’m a big fan of the outdoors but you should find what is fun for you and don’t worry if you don’t know anyone into that activity because once you start doing it I guarantee new friends will find you.

Once you achieve a new outlook and find a fun and friendly activity, the key to putting yourself over the top in the quest to become an active person is having goals. It might seem paradoxical to set goals for your fun, but striving to do things like run a half marathon, swim 1,000 meters non-stop, or some-day hike the Appalachian Trail can really obliterate those motivational blues.

However, I am not talking about body image goals here because setting out only to lose weight is an unsustainable and tiresome tactic that generally does not work. So find an activity you like to do, make a goal for yourself, and remember this proverb, “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”

Although these principles only answer the question of how to become active, the happiness and added success that come from being physically active supplies the answer to why you should become active in the first place.

Whether it’s the rush that comes after a workout or the long-term feeling of well being from combining health, fun and friends, everyone I talked to agreed that the happiness they get from being active is the biggest reward for their efforts.

Also, as far as success goes, they all also agreed it is much easier to study after a workout and that their grades would drop if they stopped being active. If you don’t believe these anecdotes, harder evidence exists to back them up. Psychologists now prescribe regular exercise for depression right alongside pills and there are even studies that show increases in body mass index reduce earnings. Attack these proofs with whatever causal arguments you want, but I still believe there is significant truth in the assertion that becoming physically active will make you happier and more successful.

Darker days and colder climes are right around the corner, but becoming active is more than enough to help you continue your personal growth this winter.

Now is the time to become an active person by changing your outlook, finding a fun activity and making some goals. This being said, Aristotle’s golden mean applies everywhere, so too much exercise and for the wrong reasons can be a bad thing. I have come to realize, though, that it does not matter where you are in life or how busy you are it is possible and worth it for everyone to become physically active.

Christian Hokans is a State News guest columnist. Reach him at hokansch@msu.edu.