It’s All In The Challenge
When I started my exercise streak on 25th March 2013, I had no idea that it would still be going, unbroken, ten years later.
As well as enjoying the daily journeys and gaining a whole load of health benefits from them, I’ve learned a lot from taking all that exercise during those ten years and from the experience of writing a book that was inspired by my exercise streak. This article is about some of those lessons learned.
Although I’ve always been active, I had been stuck in a rut where I was being incredibly active on, typically, three days a week, but becoming increasingly sedentary on the other four. If I was training for some event or an expedition, I could increase the amount of exercise I was taking, but if there was nothing special to aim for, then I sometimes found myself drifting into the danger area of thinking, ‘I’ll go for a run in two days’ time’ and having one, two or even three consecutive days with no exercise at all. That wasn’t good, and it wasn’t the lifestyle I wanted.
Since starting out on this unbroken exercise streak, I’ve learned three main points that keep me going and leaving the house every single day for some much-needed physical exercise. Firstly, I now make exercise a priority in my day. It is the top item on my to-do list every day. For some people it isn’t even on the list, and for others it’s near the bottom of their list, so gets dropped when other tasks suddenly appear over the horizon. I would like to assure you that I am busy and lead a hectic life, but exercise is an important factor in a healthy lifestyle, so I make it my top priority.
Secondly, I’ve learned that having a challenge with a number connected to it is a really effective way of providing the motivation to keep pushing and maintaining the determination to achieve a target. If I just set a target of doing some exercise every day, then my interpretation of ‘some’ could become so flexible that I could spend 30 seconds before bedtime lifting a weight and claim that I’d done some exercise on that day, whereas setting a defined target like making an at least 5 kilometre active journey every day, means I do have to make the effort to get out there and do something meaningful. Even on the most ordinary of days, I now go outdoors, get away from the phone, and enjoy whatever mode of travel I choose for that day.
Thirdly, I’ve found what works for me, and I enjoy it. That combination is so important. That’s why I keep the exercise streak going and why I find it fairly easy to keep getting out there every day.
Having recognised and thought through the importance of those three points, I had an urge to share those lessons with other people. We all stand somewhere on what I call the spectrum of exercise. That spectrum has the person who takes absolutely no exercise at one end and Olympic athletes at the other. The rest of us are somewhere between those two extremes.
No matter where you are on that spectrum, you could benefit from making exercise a higher priority than it is now, you could set a challenge with a number attached to it, at your own personal level, and if you set that challenge just right then you could find what works for you and enjoy it. The key thing is to find a way of taking more exercise than you do now, and if you do that, you will move yourself in the right direction along that spectrum.
As I say in my book, Find Time for Exercise, However much exercise you currently take, even a small increase in your level of activity could provide you with benefits to your health and happiness.
In setting out to share my thoughts with other people, I took the decision to write a book about the benefits of regular exercise around seven years ago. Since that moment, I’ve learned a great deal about writing a book and gained a basic understanding of how the book industry works. That has been as big a learning curve as the one I’ve been on with my exercise streak, and another one that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.
Ten years ago, I had no idea that my exercise streak would still be going strong in 2023 and that I would be the author of a book promoting the benefits of regular exercise, but you learn something every day and learn a mighty amount over the course of a decade.
Find Time for Exercise