THE WALK

I’m finally doing it.  Going for a walk every day.  It sounds so simple and yet I have always talked myself out of doing it.  Or made excuses for why I couldn’t do it.  I even tried scheduling it into my appointment book. 

Like many people, my days are filled with running a business, meeting with clients, appointments, commitments as a volunteer, daily chores and much more.  All these things seem to get in the way or seem more important than going for a walk.

I needed a different way to hold myself accountable.

Even though I’m a life and creativity coach myself, I work with a coach every week to help me move past things that block or prevent me from moving where I want to be.  It helps me personally and with each session I also become a better coach.

So I mentioned to my coach that I was stuck and I was finding it hard to motivate myself to go for a simple walk every day.  Together we examined my Big Goal, which is to reach a certain weight or size clothing.  Another goal is to go back to Martial Arts being fit enough to not get myself injured.

We looked at what it will feel like a year from now if I simply go for a daily walk.  And I could imagine that my legs and derriere would be stronger and firmer.  I’d be fitter.  I could go back to my karate dojo and start hitting and kicking people again!   A great way to exercise let me tell you!

It also caused me to think of what it will be like a year from now if I DON’T go for a walk every day.  I’d be sitting here, a year older, my muscles would be weaker, my metabolism would keep slowing down and I’d likely be no closer to my big goal.

Time to make a plan.  I have the big goal in front of me and that’s to lose body fat, get fitter and go back to karate.  What is the minimum that I can do to start moving toward my goal?  Well, I could go for a walk every day.  What else could I do besides going for a walk?  I could add weight lifting sessions during the week every other day.

I’ve decided that the first step is going to be to book time in my day that is strictly for going for a walk and then go for a daily walk.  I’ll measure my progress by how much further I can go everyday or how much easier it is to walk without running out of breath.  Is this achievable right here and now with everything else going on in my life?  Yes it is.  I can achieve this.  How reasonable is it that I will go for a walk every day?  Well, 6-7 days a week is more realistic.  So I won’t beat myself up if I miss a day.  And I’ve committed to walking for a minimum half hour.

And I will be accountable to my coach every day by sending her an e-mail saying that I have gone for a walk as I committed to doing.  And I will also e-mail if I did not go for a walk.  Somehow, being accountable to myself AND to my coach is keeping me moving forward and I really like how that feels!