I Kept a Walking Streak for a Full Year — and Discovered 7 Surprising Benefits Along the Way

Walking 

 

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• Rudri Bhatt Patel

  Rudri Bhatt Patel is a former attorney turned writer and editor. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Saveur, Business Insider, Civil Eats and elsewhere. She lives in Phoenix with her family.
   
  

   

  Photo by Jennifer-Ann Coffin-Grey on Unsplash

   

  Over a year ago — on Jan. 1, 2020 — I decided to make a promise to myself: I would walk or run outside every single day of the year. To track my progress, I dedicated a calendar page in my bullet journal to highlight the days I met my goal. It could be a three-mile run or a 30-minute walk around my neighborhood. My intention was primarily to remain consistent with my original objective, and I decided to maintain this habit for 365 days — in other words, I would develop a year-long streak.

  Tanya Dalton, a productivity expert and the founder of inkWELL Press Productivity Co., says employing the 3 Rs are helpful in meeting streak goals: 

  Record: All too often, we don’t take the time to realize how hard we’ve worked until we step back and take a moment to reflect and record that success. Putting your successes to paper shows you how you are progressing and allows you to see the progress you’ve made. 

  Reward: Dopamine can do wonders and act as a springboard to keep going. Reward yourself in a manner that is favorable to you and that will incentivize you to keep going.

  Redirect: The hard truth about habits is that you will fall, stumble, and miss. Everyone is human, which means we aren’t perfect. Give yourself grace when you get off track and then use the first two Rs to get back in the right direction.

  I employed this strategy in my maintaining my walking and running habit and all 3 Rs helped in trying to keep the streak alive. After an entire year of walking and running, I’ve learned seven important truths to making habits stick all year long. 

   

  • On days I didn’t feel like walking or running outside, my streak motivated me to do so. 

    There were definitely nights when I went to sleep later than usual — as a result, my motivation to run or walk outdoors the following morning would sound unappealing. I’d wake up tired and would often outline several reasons why I “didn’t have time” to squeeze in a walk or run. But the moment I thought about putting a large, bold X on my calendar, I realized it would break my streak. That single thought motivated me to keep it going. As a compromise, on low-motivation days, I’d walk a little less, but at least it compelled me to keep going, and helped me avoid the dreaded X. 

    Keeping my walking and running habit every day helped me avoid procrastination. 

    Procrastination sometimes interferes with keeping consistent with a goal. Because I knew I had to get in my outdoor time every single day, it became easier to meet this goal when I decided to make it a priority first thing in the morning. I began placing my running clothes near my bedroom door each night, which served as a good reminder to tackle my exercise before I started work or household chores, or mindlessly scrolled on my phone. Realizing I couldn’t wait until late in the day allowed me to make my streak habit a priority. ....

    

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