So now I find myself in 2007. I have a better sense of what I am capable of. I have a sense of accomplishment from my previous years walking. I have had some big months and some big days to make up those big months. I know I can go on the big walks but can I do enough of them to make up a 2,000,000 step year? There is only one way to find out. Go for it.
To do 2,000,000 steps a year you have to average 5,480 steps a day. That is each and every day, not just the days you feel like walking. If you miss a day you have to walk 10,960 steps the next day just to make up for it. You can of course add 548 steps to the next ten days to make up for one missed day or 55 extra steps for the next 100 days. The point here is that you don’t want to miss any days. As I said before, averages are funny things. The longer you generate an average the harder it is to raise or lower it. Towards the end it took some really big days to make a slight increase in the overall average.
This time I was going to attack the goal from the beginning. No slow starts this time. I needed to average 166,667 steps a month. I could do that; remember I even had a 200,000+ step month. It would be tough but it could be done. The desire was there, the motivation was there and the commitment was there. I was going to do this one way or another; I would walk 2,000,000 steps in one year.
When you have a goal like this, your mindset changes. You look for excuses to add steps to your daily routine. You don’t mind that the parking spots closest to the building are taken. You walk to meetings sometimes even taking the longer route to get there. You carry an umbrella with you so that weather does not slow you down. You study your text book while walking on a favorite path. You find yourself doing figure eight laps in the kitchen while you are waiting for the microwave to finish warming up your dinner. You become one of the mall walkers. You find a way to attach the pedometer to every piece of clothing you own from suits to bike shorts. You do whatever it takes to accumulate those steps so that you can accomplish your goal.
This year, by the end of 6 months I had reached 811,014 steps, the best start so far. Again a bout of illness slowed me down but it was not going to take me out this time. This time I knew what my goal was, and I was firm on my goal. I would make it whatever it took. That determination and drive helped keep me motivated. If I had a spare moment I was walking. If I had a layover in the airport, I was pacing the terminals. If I was in a foreign city, rather than take the rental car or taxi, I was going for a walk.
At the end of 6 months I was behind and chasing my average. I was trying to make up the lost ground and that meant putting in days that had steps well over my goal average in an effort to make up for the days I had gone short. I was beginning to understand how these averages worked, and believe me they are work, and it taught me what was needed to accomplish this goal and it all boiled down to steps.
I pushed myself and set new personal records for most steps in a day and then I would set another. I set a new high month and then another. I finally topped out at 291,066 steps in August. This really helped bring me in line with where I wanted to be but I had to keep up the effort. This made it possible. This was no longer a dream or another empty promise to myself; this was mine to take or mine to give away. It was all up to me. And it was within my reach.
As winter approached and I entered my numbers into my spreadsheet, I knew it was going to be close. My averages had fallen behind again. Not by much, I was still within 100 steps of where I needed to be but making up 100 steps a day this late in the year would mean every day had to come in above average and the higher the better.
At the end of the day I would like at the pedometer and if I was short I clipped it back on and headed out for more. Sometimes I was pacing up and down in the street in front of the house, and sometimes I was just wondering around the house looking for a few extra steps. If anyone saw me, I’m sure they would think me completely insane, but I had my goal and I was going to get it.
As the end of the year came I went shopping, not so much for the presents but for the steps. I went to the local track and made laps. I drank extra water so that I could make more trips. I would walk down the hall to talk shop rather than pick up the phone. All was directed to the goal.
And then it happened. With two days left in the year I hit my target. I had done it. I had accomplished what I had set out to do. I made my goal. The final count showed I had taken 2,011,725 steps. I had traveled 1,074 miles on foot.
This is a wondrous feeling, one that I haven’t experienced for quite some time. It was just what I was looking for. This silly little goal started out as a way to see if I could still set and meet a personal goal. It became much more than that. It became an important message to me. It taught me that I could still direct my life. I could still choose to prioritize my efforts. I could still accomplish what I put my mind to, whatever that may be. I may have forgotten for a time but once again I know that I have it within me.
So what’s next? I am not sure yet. Maybe it is time to finish my pilot’s license. Maybe it is time to learn a new language. Maybe it is time to take up the piano. Maybe it is time to go after that 1,000 mile year on the bike. During the last three years I still managed 311, 457, and 155 miles. As you can see my focus was on the steps. Maybe this year my focus will be on the bike.
Whatever it is, I know that I can; and if I want to, I will.
PS. It is two months now into the new year. My daily step totals have dropped off to about 1/3 of what they were last year. That is about what they were before I started this whole experiment. One thing that may be making a difference is that the battery went dead last November just before the completion of my goal. Bad timing, right? I have replaced it a couple of times and just went to the watch department and asked for a new one. I think it might have been a little big because even though it works it has reset on me in the middle of the day and once at the end of the day as I was taking it off. Frustrating, especially when you are counting steps. Anyway, I suspect that it is not counting every step anymore.
I have kept most of my new good habits like parking farther out and walking in, or walking to make visits whenever possible. Those kinds of things have stayed with me and I hope they always will. I am not however, as obsessed with making steps so I don’t have the pedometer on me every minute of the day. I also don’t bother to go out of my way to add steps at the end of the day anymore.
I guess the real difference is that for the last three years I had a very specific goal with a time frame that was stated, written down and committed to. I do not have that this year. That is another lesson to be taken away from all this. And I am still glad I did it.
return to part 1 or part 2.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
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