Share a piece of me. Improve a piece of you. That’s the idea behind more than a few of these columns.

The difference in the intro today is that I won’t offer an approach to eating or exercise. I’ll share something I do that drives my father — and more than a few students, I am sure — absolutely crazy.

Constantly question things.

Sometimes when dear old dad complains about my questioning of anything and everything, I quote Plato: “The life which is unexamined is not worth leading.” To which he grimaces and dismissively shakes his head, gestures designed to make me hastily exit what he sees as my isolated ivory tower of academia.

Silence follows. He goes back to reading or solving a word puzzle. I go back to cooking up a meal or a column.

Eventually, one of us brings up the Phillies, the Sixers, or some news about my niece or nephew. As long as I make sure not to question anything else, we live in harmony for a while.

Now that I’ve established that my questioning bothers others, I’ll admit that it can, on occasion, really bother me. The last time my own musings made me miserable, here’s what I was wondering: Am I a fool for spending so much time — not to mention emotional energy — pedaling that two-wheeled vehicle known as a bicycle?

During the month of February, for instance, I spent 48 hours and 58 minutes riding one either indoors or out. Add to that some really basic bicycle maintenance, some absolutely essential stretching and weightlifting, and my constant creating and critiquing of the rides, and I spent about 60 hours of my life last month on cycling or cycling-related activities.

But my concern revolved around more than the hours invested. I mean, not a day goes by where my junk mail doesn’t include a mailer from a retirement community, a hearing aid company, or the AARP, and yet at the ripe old age of 57 a few subpar rides can make me feel like the veterinarian who needed to put down a large litter of lovable puppies.

Along with that, another related thought reared its ugly head. Did I only focus so much on bicycling riding as a way to avoid other stuff?

Like relationships.

After about two weeks of intermittent mental turmoil, I was doing some channel surfing and came across an MMA fighter explaining the one thing that he absolutely has to do before a fight to get his mind right. He takes a long-distance run in the desert.

In middle of the day. With a plastic sweatsuit on.

He admitted the practice was less-than-intelligent, more-than-dangerous, yet he knows it is something he absolutely has to do to get his mind right. Plus, he loves it.

Well, that is, except when he hates it.

Initially, I felt envious. How lucky was this man to have found something that could make him feel such emotional extremes? For him, MMA fighting is certainly far more than a take-it-or-leave-it activity.

And then I felt really, really foolish.

All these life-affirming extremes — love, hate, pleasure, pain, a sense of loss, a sense of purpose — that’s what cycling, even at my age, gives to me.

But what I get is only gotten because of reciprocity. It’s the proper payback for being willing to give so much time and energy to cycling.

In short, telling my story is all well and good — but only if you can get some good out of it too. So let’s revisit this article’s intro: Share a piece of me; improve a piece of you.

The chances that you will ever feel the way I feel about riding a bicycle are virtually zero. Which is understandable and expected, for you are not me and I am not you.

But that feeling of some endeavor being —when you consider it from a purely rational point of view — too important to you is one worth actively seeking.

If you can find it in your exercise, that’s doubly good, but then again, I’m fully aware that not everyone’s life revolves around optimal health and human performance.

But even if you don’t hunger for over-the-top exercise, you should be able to find a more moderate form that’s moderately pleasing to you, one that can still crank you up or chill you out or challenge you.

And if you don’t feel that way about any form of exercise right now, go on the hunt. Experiment with anything that even remotely catches your fancy, whether it be power walking, parkour, or even frisbee golf.

For if you can find an activity that really matters to you, it will provide a breadth and a depth that will not only enhance your life, but it will also keep you exercising for life, which will increase your chances of remaining healthy as the advancing years make remaining healthy progressively more difficult to do.