In This Episode…
I have been on a mission to do 10,000 steps every day for 100 days this year. During the summer I hit 89 consecutive days and then hit a bump in the road and had to reset.
Rest 2 has just occurred because of yesterday
Episode Show Notes…
Expletives Abound Around Midnight
It’s just a simple goal of doing something every day for 100 days. I mean how difficult can that be?
Well it isn’t as easy as it sounds…at least not for me so far anyway.
I’ve a number of these things going on at the moment. They include:
- Getting up at 5:20am every day for 100 days
- Having a cold shower every day for 100 days
- Meditating every day for 100 days
- Doing at least 100 push ups across 4 sets every day for 100 days
- And of course walking 10,000 steps every day for 100 days
The point is to a) see if I can do it and b) benefit from the aggregation of the marginal gains of doing something positive every single day.
Already I am calmer from the meditation, my discipline has increased because of the cold showers and my physique is better than it has every been because of the upper body workout.
And the ability to develop consistent positive behaviours is priceless.
So it was at the very least somewhat frustrating to let the 10,000 steps a day goal slip up. I was on 76 continuous days. Only another couple of weeks and I’d have surpassed the continuous 89 days I’d amassed over the summer.
It was my own fault l let it slip.
And not by much either.
I was just 227 steps short.
I worked late last night and found myself still at the computer close to midnight. Unusually I had amassed 9,000 steps by about 4.00pm.
I normally only do about 6,500-7,500 by then. But I’d had a few more phone calls where I could trudge around the apartment clocking up steps.
Maybe being that close had lulled me into a false sense of security.
So I had a lot to do yesterday and allowing it to drift into the evening wasn’t helping either.
So I worked late.
And then collapsed into bed.
Normally when I get into bed I do a quick check of the step count to make sure I’ve hit the goal.
As I usually try to go to bed before 11.00pm, if there are any steps left to do, I catch myself before going to sleep and pace up and down in the hall to meet the daily quota.
But yesterday it was gone midnight when I went to bed, by which time it was too late.
And I was fuming with myself.
I ranted and raved and swore my head off for a few minutes.
It was so unnecessary – that was what caused the frustration.
But that only lasted for a few minutes. I’d let it out and then realised there was nothing I could do and so laughed it off (albeit slightly begrudgingly).
However I realised that I have a choice about how I deal with it.
I could let it spoil my night, my day and my week.
The old me would have let that happen.
However I chose to let it go. It is still annoying but I know what happened and accept it was my fault and that I just have to move on. The counter has been reset on that metric and tomorrow will be day 1.
That in itself is a great lesson for me to have learnt and for me to see just how much I have grown in the last couple of years.
My partner suggested that as it was only 227 steps and there have been many days when I have done in excess of 15,000 steps I could write it off.
However a commitment is a commitment and my values don’t allow me to think like that.
…And it gave me a topic for my podcast.
