500 Wins

I seem to be meeting all sorts of wonderful people lately who are asking me the most delicious(pun intended) questions.

You just gotta love questions really.  They're a great way to learn.

And, it's not just the people asking the questions who are doing the learning, it's also the people who are being asked.

That's why I love questions.

So this nice woman I met recently was relating to me that she was a seamstress.  She spends hours a day just sitting and sewing.

In her words she said "I'm a sloth".

She knows she needs to be more active and lose weight.

And, she really wants to but it feels like an insurmountable feat from where she's sitting.

She mentioned that she got a Fitbit but then told me she was "...only logging 500 steps.  Everyone says you need to get 10,000 steps in and I'm getting 500".

Here was my answer...

"You know what?  When I got on the treadmill this morning I just didn't seem to have a lot of energy and I ran a fraction of what I usually run BUT, I walked a lot and I ran a little.

In the old days I may not have gotten on the treadmill at all but today I did.

  I tell my son that when you compare yourself to other people and you think you're better- that's arrogant but when you compare yourself to you and know you're better than you used to be, that's confident.  And that kind of confidence is a great thing.


When I'm running or walking or skipping, or whatever I'm doing that's not sitting, I tell myself that every step is a win.

Just think of that!!!

You had 500 steps!

THAT'S 500 WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woo hoo!  Good for you!

Maybe you can set a goal of 600 steps and do that for a couple weeks until it feels comfortable.  Then maybe you can increase it to 700.

To shoot for 10,000 when you're starting at 500 isn't realistic and it feels so huge you're likely to never move past the mental inertia that it takes to even start.

As my minister and friend once told me "what other people think of you- that's none of your business!"

In truth, anything that you can do now that you couldn't do before is a win.

Where other people see losers I see a lot of beautiful winners!  :)