10 million steps later
In 2024 I set myself the challenge of walking 8 million steps in a year, raising money for people experiencing homelessness.
Diary of a wimpy man
January 4th: Posted the blog explaining the challenge I’m undertaking. Lots of people think I’m crazy. Many more thought it was a scam.
February 15th: Hit my first million steps but I can’t celebrate. I’ve barely moved for the last week. I came down with some virus that destroyed my energy, and my step average. Devastating.
March 13th: Bought an under-desk treadmill to use at my standing desk when I’m working from home. The only way I can get it to work is by going extremely slowly. Not the life hack I imagined.
April 7th: Never thought I’d be the kind of person to get up at 6am to exercise while on holiday. But here I am.
May 29th: Going through a frustrating period of low mood and anxiety. Getting up early is becoming a big struggle. I’m having to do more steps in the evening. I need to force myself to keep going. Every step counts.
June 10th: 4 million steps completed. All downhill from here surely…
Based on a true story
Now, dear reader, it’s time for a confession.
When I originally came up with this challenge my aim was to walk 10 million steps in a year. In fact, I even set up a GoFundeMe page with that target.
However, the more I thought about it, I came to the conclusion it just wasn’t achievable.
But in my head I knew the real target. And that slowly chipped away at me.
I know 8 millon would have been good enough. But I also felt like good enough wasn’t good enough. Even if 8 million was a big number, it wasn’t my number. I would know.
I knew I’d have to dig deep. It’s like that phrase I like, which is yet more tautology but sort of makes sense to me: nothing changes if nothing changes.
Now, back to our regular scheduled programming.
July 15th: 5 million steps.
Pause notifications
You may have heard of the idea of ‘monk mode’, a concept that has gained popularity amongst productivity enthusiasts, referring to the decision to shut out all external distractions for intense periods of uninterrupted focus.
I would love to say this is what I entered into in the second half of the year - laser focused on one core idea. But I don’t think monk mode is sustainable when you have to take your five year old to swimming lessons.
Instead, I opted for dark mode. Going long periods off my phone and away from distracting news and messaging apps.
I look back at younger me, living a life without Google Maps, Uber and Deliveroo and think I really did live like monk. But there are trade offs in life. And despite all the advantages, everyone carrying around a distraction device with them at all times is actually quite a big trade off.
August 23rd: My smart watch glitched and I lost around 9,000 steps. Gutted.
Share the load
To aid me in this challenge I have had to drop many things this year: I’ve read no books, missed most of the Olympics and have no idea what a Baby Reindeer is.
But you can’t do this alone. Lisa, my partner of 11 years, has been incredibly supportive throughout this ridiculous experiment.
Even still, it does feel like I was crossing a line to be away from her and our son for so many hours as I was, as a friend bluntly put it, “walking your life away”.
September 9th: Walked for hours without my phone. No podcasts, no music. Just me and my thoughts. It was equal parts interesting and nightmarish.
Keep moving forward
This year in London rough sleeping hit a shameful ten year high. At this rate the AI robots won’t need to torture us - we’re perfectly capable of treating each other terribly.
This isn’t the story everywhere. In Finland, they are on track to end homelessness by 2027. The country has made ending homelessness a national priority and their Housing First policy assigns homeless people rental homes and counselling without preconditions. The policy has been successful, with the number of homeless people in Finland falling almost every year.
A better way is possible.
October 22nd: 8 million steps.
Labouring away
I hope the homelessness situation improves. But we need more than hope.
We have a new government who ran an entire election campaign on one word: change. They didn’t mention in which direction. But surely things can only get better?
In total, I raised £2,050 to help end homelessness. I’m so grateful for the generosity of everyone who donated. Thank you so much. You are heroes.
November 1st: Set myself the target of walking 1 million steps in November.
November 30th: 958k steps completed this month. My feet are sore. That was dumb. I should have attempted that in a month with 31 days.
December 7th: 5am start. Beat my daily steps record. However, all enthusiasm for this challenge has now gone. It’s dark. It’s cold. I’m tired. I’m having to do more steps indoors, which takes forever. But I’m actually going to make it…’You’re all clear, kid. Now let’s blow this thing and go home.’
December 29th: 10 million steps.
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end
It ended as it started, with no fanfare, just walking around the park on me tod.
After the last few intense months my feet were feeling sore. I hobbled back home, thankful that I have one to hobble back to.