There's No Need to Go Alone: Find Motivation and Encouragement from Others

If you know me, I’m a big indoor cycling fan. I was a frequent cyclist at CycleBar, almost hitting 200 rides with the 5:30 am crew, before I decided to invest in a Peloton bike. I’ve been riding “on the bike that goes nowhere” since November 2020, and this past weekend, I hit my 400th ride.

I decided to do a live 45-minute 80s rock ride with my favorite instructor, Sam Yo. I wasn’t expecting much from the ride. After all, I had already done a 4:30 am live ride with another instructor out of the U.K. But I wanted to celebrate my 400th ride with Sam Yo. So I jumped on the live ride, along with dozens of other #YesYo riders. Pelotoners can attach different hashtags to their leaderboard names to identify themselves with certain groups.

So there I was on Saturday morning, riding along with other riders who I’ve never met before but have shared a common experience of sprinting, climbing, sweating on a bike in front of a monitor since November. Throughout the ride, I was bombarded with high fives from other riders, the Peloton equivalent of riders saying, “Great job,” “You can do it,” and even, “This is absolutely painful, but I’m in this with you, and we’ll get through this together.”

The high fives continued throughout the ride. Then, at about 30 minutes into the ride, I received a shoutout from Sam Yo himself.

“90 to 110 now. That is the push. It’s a break away,” the former Monk of Chinese and Thai descent said in his British accent. (I, too, am Chinese and Thai.)

Then …

“DeanPeloTommy. Happy 400, Dean.”

I wasn’t sure whether he actually thought my first name was Dean, but that didn’t matter.

I was riding strong with all of the high fives from the other riders. And the shoutout from the instructor with about a third in the class remaining gave me that extra boost.

The next thing I knew, I was on pace to setting a new personal best for a 45-minute ride. And when it was all said and done, I had beaten my previous best by more than 50 kj (which was almost a 9 percent increase).

Now, why am I telling you this story?

As you’re beginning to study for the bar exam this summer, many of you will be studying alone. But remember—there’s no need to do it alone.

Studying with a friend or colleague and remaining engaged throughout the summer are proven strategies for improving results.

Here are some benefits:

It keeps you motivated.

Studying with a friend or colleague is a great way to increase motivation, particularly because your study partner will understand the demands of preparing for the bar exam and, ultimately, the end goals. If you or your study partner is feeling unmotivated, it’s easy to encourage each other by reminding one another why you’re doing what you’re doing, which leads to the next benefit.

It provides an opportunity for shared experiences.

Studying with a partner gives you an opportunity to bounce your understanding of the material off each other and to work through practice problems together. This shared experience of working through content and questions together can help you better understand the information and can introduce you to study and learning techniques that you might not have considered by yourself.

It creates accountability.

A study partner can help eliminate procrastination, increasing your commitment and improving your understanding of the material as a result. This contributes to a greater sense of accountability, as you and you study partner are relying on one another to keep focused and on track.

It breaks up the monotony of studying alone.

Studying alone is a necessary part of studying for the bar exam. You’ll need that time to focus and concentrate. But studying alone shouldn’t entirely make up how you study for the bar exam. Having a study partner can break up the monotony of isolating yourself with the books. Whether you’re mixing up your review with a study partner one, two, three, or four or more days a week, the opportunity to discuss concepts with someone else will likely improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your solo studying. After all, you’ll want to be more prepared when you meet, and you’ll likely have some great takeaways from the study sessions that you can incorporate into your own studying.

So, as you can see, there are significant benefits to incorporating a study partner into your bar preparation study schedule, just as there are benefits for me to riding with the #YesYo crew.