"You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight." — Jim Rohn
During a recent coaching call a client was discussing some challenges she was facing while attempting to get 10,000 steps a day. She was walking during her lunch break. Getting off the subway a few stops earlier. Taking a walk after dinner. Pacing around her apartment. But she was still just barely getting to her (self imposed) 10k goal. AND she was feeling like it was consuming her entire day, so she was beginning to question how she could possibly keep up with this endeavor. So...I suggested that she stop trying to get 10,000 steps. Now you might be wondering why I didn't help her "dig deep" to find more motivation or why I wouldn't help her come up with other strategies to get more steps in, But here's the thing,
10,000 steps wasn't the right goal.
Because #1, there is nothing magical about 10,000 steps. The statistical benefits of accumulating more than 7-8000 steps/day are slight. Meaning...it won't hurt you to get 10k steps, but it also will not reduce your risk of premature death any more than 8k will. Sometimes more is just more. 🤷♀️ And #2, she was averaging 4-5000 steps per day previously. Now, I'm no math wiz, but, going from 5k to 10k is kind of a big increase. And when we set lofty goals for ourselves like this one, we generally set ourselves up for failure...
Even if the goal is something we think we "should" be able to do easily.
8 hours of sleep
10,000 steps
80 ounces of water
A 10 minute mile
Squatting your bodyweight
Hitting the above standards wouldn't get your name in the Guiness Book of Records.
They aren't impressive or at all special.
So that means it "should be" easy to do them...
Right?
Well, just because something is considered a "standard" doesn't mean that it is standard for YOU.
And if your goal, no matter how "simple" or "easy" you think it should be, doesn't take into consideration where you are starting from,
You will most likely find yourself feeling like this client was feeling...
Burnt out, frustrated and defeated.
Which, I'm sure you can guess what those feelings often lead to...
Giving up.
Now, this doesn't mean that you can't or shouldn't set BIG goals for yourself,
But rather that you need to work towards BIG goals via multiple, sequential small goals.
And you can do this by identifying the GAP between where you are at now and where you want to go and then taking a small step towards reducing that gap, rather than trying to close it in one giant leap.
In the case of this client, she shrank her step goal to 7k and guess what happened?
She's been crushing it.
She's getting 7-8k steps consistently AND feeling like she can continue hitting this target indefinitely.
It's doable NOT daunting.
So, if you've been struggling to hit a specific target, consider moving the target closer.
Because it doesn't matter if it's only 2 feet in front of you, it always feels good to hit the bullseye.
Forget where you "should" be and start where you ARE.
Set a target that is doable NOT daunting.
And work on closing that gap with one small win at a time.
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