Motivation – It Takes Baby Steps. And a Different Mindset

I’ve been rethinking this whole going for a walk thing. And I realize that my problem isn’t in the moving part, it’s the getting out the door part. And I’ve tried (sort of, not really) to get out. During the day is hard. And I have always liked the morning better. It’s just the getting up part. 

Marty is coming to stay with us for a week, and he does get me up and at ‘em early in the morning. Wait, let me back up a bit… Marty is a Labrador. When his humans go to visit grandkids, it usually involves a plane and at least a couple of weeks, so Marty stays with us. Marty’s got a schedule. And lives with early birds… VERY early birds. And so when he’s here, we become early birds. I think the trick is going to be keeping up with being an early bird even once he goes home. 

But to get me in the practice, and actually knowing he was coming, I started to wean myself into those early mornings even before he showed up because I knew it would be impossible if I didn’t. And I was already getting up at 6:00 for the past several weeks since we were having work done in the house and the guys were here by 7:15-7:30. And then as it got closer to Marty coming, I changed it a bit to 5:45 (which meant I was actually moving by 6). Then with Marty here, I’ve been waking up at 5:30 and moving by 5:45. And with that I am actually downstairs ready to go by 6:30. And then we’re out the door. 

Eventually, I want to get up to 5 miles a day, which I’m nowhere near, but I decided that I’m not going to get antsy that I’m not really walking too much cause of Marty. (Side note: Marty is about 12-13 years old and has arthritis and back issues. In short, Marty walks really slow, smells EVERYTHING, and we don’t get too far.) I decided that I’m just going to focus on getting myself out the door that early. Actually, just focus on getting myself out the door at all. It seems ridiculous to get all up and dressed and coat and shoes and everything, just to essentially make it out the door and then go a couple of blocks one way and then back. BUT, I’ve decided to look at it a different way. 

The first step in forming a habit, is 1) attaching it to a previous already established habit; and 2) keeping it consistent, and 3) starting with baby steps and building on them. So I’m pretty well used to the getting up early part. Actually, I’ve been waking up sort of before the alarm even goes off. Like it’s not waking me out of a dead sleep. Then if I give myself that 15 minutes of snooze time (so the alarm goes off every 5 minutes, so by the 4^th time, I can get myself moving.) And then it’s just my regular routine: get up, bathroom, teeth, hair, make bed, dressed. This’ll just include shoes too. And coat. And then once I’m out the door the moving part isn’t hard. 

What I think I’ll have to remind myself about is going slow to start. And by slow I mean don’t go all out in the first day and try for like 5 miles. Even doing half of that would probably be a too much. I just want to get in the habit of walking, and wanting to go. If I’m totally spent and sore and exhausted, then how much am I really going to want to go out the next day? I won’t. I’m sure of that. So, I need to keep it realistic (think smaller distances to start and build on that.) I could build it up an extra block every few days or something. And, I may just keep it to Monday – Friday, and take the weekends off. And the way I figure, if I can do 3 miles in about 45 minutes, or even an hour, then I should be able to do 5 miles in about an hour and a half. Something like that. I’m thinking that would give me well over 10,000 steps per day, which would be good. Cause I really need to do something to get myself moving. 

I have a office job, but since COVID I’ve been working from home. This has been great in so many ways, and I like it much better than the long commute into the office and back home every day. But I’m really having a hard time with the just sitting part and not really moving all day. But after doing that for so many days in a row I sort of get into a rut and can’t talk myself into moving. Especially during the day. Although, I do find the time to go out with Marty, so maybe what I need to do is make a hard stop in the middle of the day and just go out. Because I make that hard stop with Marty and am out with him about an hour or so around noon. If I could get myself out in the middle of the day I could take myself for a walk and split up the 5 miles, or get in even farther than 5 miles in a day. I could start slow and work my way up to a 2.5, 3, 4 mile walk in the morning. Then I could repeat it again in the afternoon. So then that’s 5-6 miles total in a day minimum. Or 7, or 8. And that probably translates to what 15,000 steps? 17,000? 20,000? 

And there I go, getting ahead of myself. Which is also something that keeps me from building new habits or starting healthier habits. I look at the long term goal and forget about the “long term” part of it. And all of a sudden I want to be doing that end goal NOW. Which would be why I have to keep reminding myself about baby steps and not getting ahead of myself. And not getting aggravated with myself that I’m not at the end goal NOW! I find this is a pattern I’ve had my entire life: I’ll start a new project or habit or something, and I’ll be really good for a little bit, and then even with seeing progress, I’ll get bored when I feel like I’m moving too slow towards the goal. And the boredom doesn’t push me to work harder/faster/more, it makes me feel defeated, and then I just stop. This is the mindset I want to switch around. This is the mindset I want to overcome.

Most people will tell you it takes baby steps to get anywhere or create anything. It’s just the actual breaking it down into those tiny steps that can seem a bit ridiculous, mostly because it then makes the timeline to the goal seem long and drawn out, which then makes the goal seem that much harder to attain, and then you almost want to just quit. Or not even get started. But don’t do that. You deserve your own Potted Oasis, even if it take a little tough love to get there.