from awareness to action

I got a Fitbit at the start of 2024. I bought it for the sole purpose of determining how many steps I took per day, and what a reality check that was, let me tell you!

I work an office job, and the majority of my day is spent sitting or standing at my little desk. Most of the movement I get is bringing my hand to my mouth with snacks or running downstairs to sign paperwork with a patient. I am primarily stationary for six to eight hours per day.

When I first got my Fitbit, I was positive that I took over 10,000 steps in a day. How hard could that really be, I smugly thought to myself as I strapped the apparatus to my wrist. Oh, what a rude awakening I was in for.

My first day back to work after the new year boasted a tidy amount of 6,943 steps. It only went downhill from there as the pace picked up at work. I started to sprint in place at random intervals just to get my step count up. I felt like I was fighting a losing battle. That was January. I struggled with staying active up until July (seven months, if you’re counting).

In Psychology, there’s an old saying that awareness is the first step to change. And yes, awareness is an important element for sure. But stopping at awareness leaves you feeling discouraged and depleted. I was aware that I needed to move my body more, but I didn’t get serious about making a change for over half a year! However, I don’t think we can ignore the fact that every day for seven months I wanted to do better, to make a change, to be healthier. I thought about this often. Sometimes we need to hear a message enough times before we’ll actually knuckle down and get to work.

And let’s face it—habits are a lot of work. Talk to anyone who has set a New Year's Resolution, or any resolution for that matter. Maybe you’ve been there, goal list in hand, thinking everything is about to change when you flip to the new year in your calendar. New year, new me! New month, new me! New day, new me! How disappointing it is when things stay the same. It’s easy to write a list of goals, but translating these aspirations into real change is a completely different race altogether. As the old saying goes, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. That means we have to train differently.

Often, we can sustain a new habit over the short term, but when things get tough and we aren’t seeing the same massive progress we experienced initially, we get discouraged and give up. I knew all of this, but I also knew that I didn’t want to continue in the same pattern I was stuck in. I wanted to be the healthiest version of myself, and that meant that I needed to make some changes.

At first, I tried a variant of habit-stacking. If you don’t know what habit-stacking is, the concept is essentially that you pair a habit you want to develop with something that you already do in order to make it more likely you’ll actually do it. My variation was that I tried to make running more appealing by pairing it with something fun—watching a show. It made running a lot easier because I would get engrossed in the storyline of the show I was watching, which helped me to forget about the pain I was experiencing while running. And this system worked really well for a time. I was meeting and exceeding my step goals, and I felt healthier and more motivated to pursue other goals as well.

But one day, I went on a run outside with my husband, Lars. It was a totally different ball game. And it was HORRIBLE. I thought I’d made serious progress in terms of my ability to run—and in truth, I had. But Lars has long legs and his lungs are better than mine. I felt like my chest was on fire. Running in the real world is a lot more exertion than running in place.

Slowly, however, going on evening runs has become a routine for us. We’ll lace up our shoes together, set our running trackers, and race off into the cool of the night. It’s become one of my favorite parts of the day.

There’s something special about running under the cover of darkness. Most people are indoors, so there’s no one there to witness us sprinting under the streetlights, feet pounding the pavement like a rhythmic drumbeat. Our lungs greedily take in the cold air and our hearts pump steadily. And it’s here, with all the effort and exertion, that we experience real dopamine that fuels us to keep going.

Running is such a small thing. We usually go for runs between 8-16 minutes in length, 1-2km in distance. But it has changed so much. My sleep has improved drastically. My energy levels have increased. Our connection has strengthened through working together towards a shared goal. And it all started with a spark of awareness that I needed to move my body more.

Awareness is a powerful tool if you’ll allow it to morph into action.