Millions

Introduction

Six or seven years ago a rabbit suggested I take up the “Million Step Challenge” for Diabetes UK which was to walk a million steps in three months. At the time they were suggesting getting sponsorship to raise money and at the time I had taken redundancy from EE but had a Samsung Note (which I thought was an excellent phone) to record my steps via Google Fit (which I still use today).

This is just about how this has affected me and how I have adapted it and still sort of following it today, but it’s also my attitude to goals and targets and trying to make sure that things are actually realistic.

In The Beginning

The day I started this was the first of May 2017 and the first thing I did was start a Google Sheets workbook to record my steps but soon after that my Note packed up, so I replaced it with a Sony phone which was the only phone that I ever smashed the screen of when I accidentally dropped it. On the advice of my daughter Kirsty and son-in-law Mark, I then went for a Google Pixel (refurbished from Music Magpie) and have been through three of those and am now on a Google Pixel 4XL which is more than adequate with an excellent camera and wireless charging.

I worked out that a million steps every three months is eleven thousand steps a day which is roughly four and a half miles.

After I had done the first three months I then decided to keep it at a rolling million steps every three months which I didn’t think would be a problem, but eventually, I felt a little pressured having to walk morning and night to get the steps in. If I didn’t make the eleven thousand I would try and make it up in subsequent days, but often I would exceed the target and keep that as a contingency. The target was a million steps every three months and that could be hit even with short walk days.

When COVID hit I still walked, walked but I was having to walk before work and after work to get the steps in, and while this was and still is more than possible, the thing I didn’t like was continually having to take that time to hit the target, so I lowered my target to seven thousand steps a day, that is about three miles.

Releasing The Pressure.

My daily target is now seven thousand steps. I can hit that quite easily without taking a lot of time to do the steps. A few years ago I started taking pictures of cats and sharing them on Instagram with the #CatsInNam hashtag and I still do that and it gives me a low-pressure reason to actually go out walking.

If I keep to seven thousand stems a day it would take me five months to hit the million steps, but because I have an easily achievable target I often surpass it by doing fifteen or twenty thousand steps some days and often hitting three hundred thousand steps a month, meaning that the million steps in three months still being almost achieved.

Conclusion

This is something that can be taken into all parts of life, making sure that targets are achievable. When you do achieve them they make you feel that you are successful and encourage you to go even further with what you are doing.

I have written before about setting goals and targets and they are a must-have in my opinion in all areas of what you do, although I do enjoy sometimes having no target except to see what happens when I do what I do.

If targets are causing you stress see if you can rein them back a little. There are sometimes things that you have to hit (paying bills, delivering results at work, being in time for that train or plane), but where you are fully in control see if you can set a target that you have the ability to surpass.

You will feel far better for it.