I Walk the Line

I've never learned to ride a bike. I can't roller-skate, let alone inline skate. Just my thinking of being on a skateboard just made every doctor in a ten-mile radius cringe and they don't even know why. I learned to drive when I was thirty.

All of that adds up to me logging many, many miles walking.

So aiming for 10,000 steps a day should be a snap, right? It's proving un-snaptastic.

I spend a lot of my 10 hours at work at a desk, writing. Add to that roughly three hours driving and that's a lot of sitting. As our CEO said "Chairs are not your friends."

I'm gradually increasing the time I deliberately spend walking; I do several laps around the sales floor a couple of times a day. I'm now a modified mall-walker... even if it is just one very large store and warehouse; it IS the size of a mall.

Each lap is about a thousand steps. I've been thinking about walking quite a bit... as I walk.

When I was a girl I was eager to get where I was going; it was common to see me walking ahead, out on my own. As a young mom I walked in the middle: a daughter on either side . Or sometimes one holding onto my shirt and another in a front pack. Always connected, walking as one.

Today my husband and I hold hands, even if it's from the car into a store...just a few steps and my hand slips into his as he flexes his and reaches out for me. In fact, it was part of my wedding vow to him: Wherever life takes you, I will be there at your side, my hand in yours.

I remember, back when I was a bookseller in the mall, zipping through the store, dashing out from the register and grabbing a book, (OK, always tried to grab two- one that they asked for and an add-on sale) and getting back to the register that fast!

I never thought of counting steps- I knew I walked laps and laps , miles and miles, every day.

I was walking through a store the other day and I noticed something: many of the men helped customers by walking slightly in front of them, leading them through the store. Many of the women didn't. Many of the women trailed behind. Talking to the backs of the customer's heads. Not leading, but being lead.

Hmmm. Do I do that? Sometimes. Figuratively if not physically. I don't want to be pushy. I want everyone to have a say. We'll all get there eventually, isn't it better if everyone has a part in the journey?

Maybe. It depends on the purpose of the journey. If we're just moseying, or hiking, simply strolling, and time isn't an object, then OK.

No need for me to lead.

But if I'm asked the way, if I see a false step ahead, ~(I've been this way and there be dragons)~ not taking the lead is a waste of time for everyone involved. I can't lead by talking to the back of anyone's head. That's heckling, not leading.

As I make my laps I've been thinking of a lesson learned in the past couple of years: Leaders go first... and they eat last. When I had my store and corporate teams It was clearer to me how to do this. Learning to lead, knowing when to walk ahead and when to wait, it's a little trickier these days.

But I'm learning.

My Fitbit (and now my Apple watch) doesn't record lip service! It only counts the get up off your ass and move moments. Would have, could have, should have doesn't register on it at all! I can't fool it with good intentions or pie-in-the-sky wishes. It's not impressed with what I did yesterday.

It doesn't care that I hit 11k last week! I prove myself to my fitbit everyday: did I do what I said I would do? Did I walk the walk or just talk the talk?

At night, as I review the day before going to sleep I want to tally up those other steps I take each day. Did I lead when I should have lead? Did I take instruction and follow when it was my turn? Am I walking the walk or just talking the talk?

How do I measure up in what really matters?

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If this article lead you to think about the way you walk your talk please click on the heart below so I will know.

Here's another story that gives you a glimpse into the things I think as I walk: