In just a few days, half of 2020 will have gone by. It seems like just yesterday when everyone was looking forward to 2020 and coming up with a list of New Year’s resolutions or goals for the year. My main goal is to walk at least 10,000 steps every day. It sounds very simple and not that much work, but ever since I’ve started working, I’ve averaged less than 5,000 steps a day.
My usual bus stop to my building is less than 300 feet, which is probably only around 200 steps. Once inside the building, most of my time is spent sitting at my desk in front of the computer. I wouldn’t even have 1,000 steps by lunch time. If I go for a short walk during lunch, I would get 2,000 to 3,000 steps, but that would require me to quickly finish my lunch and miss out on eating lunch with my coworkers. The bus stop to get home is a bit farther: 0.1 miles, but still not far enough to get a lot of steps. When I get home from work, all I want to do is eat, watch TV, and go on my computer – there’s no time to walk!
With my goal of walking 10,000 steps a day, I had to come up with a plan. A plan that would (hopefully) not interfere with my normal activities too much. I got off the bus a few stops earlier and took detours to get to my building – this helped me get around 1,700 steps by the time I started working. I made a mini goal to get 4,500 steps by the end of lunch so that I would be almost halfway there when half the day is gone. To get the most steps out of my lunch time, I would walk in another direction every time the traffic light was red and take the stairs instead of the escalator whenever possible. When I am home, I would stand as I eat dinner, and walk back and forth as I watched TV. These small adjustments have helped me get 10,000 steps a day (for every day except one so far)!
My plan had to be adjusted once I started working from home, but I did learn an easier way to think about my steps. I started keeping track of how many steps I would get based on how long I walked. For every 10 minutes I would get around 1,000 steps, so for every 45-minute drama episode I watched, I would get around 4,500 steps. This made the 10,000 steps more easily achievable – I would just have to watch two 45-min episodes while walking, and I would almost be at my step goal! The beginning was more difficult because I would get tired and want to sit and enjoy the episode, but after doing this every day, I got used to it. In fact, it seems weird to sit and watch TV now.
I hope to continue getting 10,000 steps a day not only for the rest of this year, but for every day after. Seeing it from a time perspective has helped make the goal more attainable, and I’m curious how I can approach my other goals with a different perspective too!
How have your resolutions and goals been coming along?