For the past couple of months, I've been taking a long walk every Wednesday morning with a friend. We have a beautiful cemetery and arboretum in our neighborhood with walking paths and so we walk about 3.5 miles (or about 8,000 steps according to my watch).

I'm smiling as I write that because a little over a year ago, I was barely taking 2,500 steps in a day. Now, I'm starting my day with a walk that gets me anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000. Past me would be blown away 🤯 at how much progress I've made.

Past me had lots of objections, but the biggest one was about time. "I don't have the time to walk 8,000 steps in a day!"

Maybe you have that objection too. Maybe you want to exercise more, improve your friendships, start a job search, or just get your family photos organized so you can finally order that album, but you just can't find the time.

But what if the problem isn't really the time, but how you think about and approach the goal?

When you consider your goal, whatever you're thinking of as you read this, notice if you're picturing the finish line?

For example, if you want to start weightlifting, are you picturing yourself going from zero training sessions today to 3-4 sessions a week?

Or if you're thinking about a job search, are you picturing yourself going from no time dedicated to job searching today to interviewing multiple times a month?

Those are big leaps and could explain why the thought of "fitting it in" feels so daunting.

Life, especially with kids and work, leaves little spare time. By the time you get home, take care of everyone else, tidy up and prep for tomorrow, there's not much left to invest in your personal goals. And waking up earlier when you're already tired, doesn't sound all that appealing either.

But what if your next step was so small that it wouldn't be that hard to fit in. What if you focused on the smaller, more doable steps instead of looking at the finish line?

When I first decided to track my daily steps, I was inspired by a couple of IG accounts focused on weight-training for women. They all talked about increasing your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT). So I got an activity tracker and was appalled to see that my average daily baseline was only about 2,500 steps per day! 😱 Far from the 10,000-step goal the app had set for me.

Going from 2,500 to 10,000 steps was a huge leap. My immediate reaction was I don't know how anyone does this! I have to maximize my work hours while I have childcare. I can't be taking hour-long walk breaks in the middle of the day! There's no way.

But I decided to see instead what it would take to get 4,000 steps a day. And I was surprised that while it did take some effort, it wasn't as hard as I thought. It meant walking to the library in the evening, or pacing around the kitchen island while making dinner, and saying yes to the game of tag my kids wanted me to play.

After 4,000 steps, I increased to 5,000 and took another few months to figure out what it would take to hit that consistently. Incremental progress became my strategy.

Each increase was never that hard because my leap there wasn't that big. And today, I'm working on hitting 7,000 steps a day consistently.

It's still not the 8-10K that I initially wanted to hit, but it's so much more than 2,500. I feel better. I have more energy. And I'm just proud of myself for not waiting.

I've helped clients get back into running and training for races, complete their pelvic floor physical therapy exercises consistently, start a job search (talk about a daunting goal), and everything in between.

If you're telling yourself you don't have time to get started on that goal, how can you adjust your expectations and start with a step so small it almost feels not worth it.

But that super small step is what will actually fit into your busy schedule. And once you have success there, you'll feel motivated by following through and you'll take the next step. And who knows where you'll be in 3 months or 6 months, all because you started small today.

Finding Time for Your Goals

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