Journey vs. Destination

I remember once in a shared office, two guys I worked with were complaining that they never had time to exercise. They had plans but never got to it. They commiserated with each other about exercise falling by the wayside due to stupid work deadlines then turned to see if I’d join in. I said, “Don’t look at me. I get on the exercise bike with a beer and do my ten miles as soon as I get home.”

They were impressed. Probably more by the beer than by the consistency in exercise.

This year, I made a small new year resolution: for one week (starting January 1st) I’ll focus a bit more exercise; I want to get 10k steps on my Fitbit and spend time on the exerbike as well. My goal is to get into a new habit. The plan is that I didn’t need to do ten miles on the bike, just get on it for a few minutes. For the most part, I have done my normal ten, except for that day we rented a Wii Dance game (Rick Astley and Carly Rae Jepsen wore me out).

I only have one more day to walk and bike. I don’t anticipate any problems completing my goal and I plan to make a new one for next week. Though I may take a day off. I hoped for a habit but I find I’m starting to drag a bit. Maybe on Wed, I’ll do one or the other instead of both. Also, I’ll change resolutions to something else.

After all, over the last week, I have gained wait (but lost body fat according to the scale). Maybe next week, I’ll ditch the exercise goal and spend a week counting calories. Or maybe I’ll ditch health goals for a a week and spend a week writing more (I have a 10 part series I want to blog but haven’t had time with all the exercise). Or possibly I’ll do something particularly nice for someone every day. That is always a fun resolution. Or maybe I’ll spend an hour every day promoting my book (I suck at self promotion but there are people I should ask for reviews or send copies to). Or I could garden for an hour every day, clean up the backyard so the spring wildflowers can some in.

I suppose my real goal is to have some self-improvement-ish thing every week to focus on. Every thing I add takes time.  Some thing will turn out to be worth the time. Some things won’t. Some things will form habits and after a week of concentrating on it, I won’t need to think about it anymore.

So, starting tomorrow, I’ll keep exercising (that has been a habit for years) but with a little less focus on it so I can try something else. Wish me luck and strong resolve.

Happy new year!