A 2,000 Mile Year

Walking from Erie, PA to Twin Falls, Idaho

Last year for Christmas, my husband bought me a gift I didn't ask for...heck, I didn't know anything about them.  He got me a FitBit.  He said he knew the tiny device would combine my love of techie things with my obsession  love of walking.  He was right.

I pick an annual word.  Something that I can look at and remind myself of what I want to work on that year.  2014's word was STEP.

And though I am not someone who makes New Year's resolutions, I decided to set the goal of trying for 10,000 steps a day for the whole year.

So every morning, I walk the dogs.  They do their dog stuff and I reflect on the day's work.  It's quiet in the morning.  I feel like the world is mine.  I think about what I wrote the previous day and try to decide where to write next.

Every evening, my husband goes for a walk with me.  We walk around the neighborhood and reconnect.  He tells me about his day at the office, I tell him about mine on the couch working on my WIP.

And every day this year, I've had at least 10,000 steps, which is about five miles a day.  Most days I go a lot farther.

I visited Mapquest a couple weeks ago and realized that if I'd walked west in a straightish line, all those steps and miles would have taken me to Twin Falls, Idaho.  It's not quite to the coast, but it's close.  Just over 2,000 miles.

So, what is my takeaway from my year of walking?
~I like walking, but I knew that going in to it.
~If you set a goal, you can reach it, one step at a time!
~Sometimes it's best not to look too far down the road.  It's easier to concentrate on the next step...the next mile.  The other 1,999 miles will sort themselves out.
~Walking is great exercise for your body...but it's also a great time to sort out things in your mind.

So as I approach the end of my year of walking, there's not just a good chance that I'll be walking again next year...it's a certainty.

Holly

PS. I have a couple coffee mugs that I'll be giving away to one of my newsletter subscribers at the end of the month, and a few more subscriber giveaways planned for 2015! Maybe you can share some coffee glee with me!  Not subscribed yet?  http://eepurl.com/4OPQL

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www.HollyJacobs.com 

Christmas in Cupid Falls

Just One Thing

Maid in LA Boxed Set

Carry Her Heart, Release 4/15

And I Would Walk 10,000…er Steps

So what's new with me in 2014??

My husband bought me a FitBit for Christmas.  He bought it because he knows me so well.  Not only is it techy, which he knows I love, but it also tracks steps and miles.

For the last year, I've been trying for three mile walks every day. More when I can get them.  I have an app for that.  But sometimes I forget to turn it on.  This solves that.

Now, the only flaw with those long walks every day is I live in Erie.  According to the Golden Snow Globe site, we're #1 right now with 77.4 inches of snow.  I don't mind walking in the snow, but that Polar Vortex kicked my butt.  So even though I still wanted those 10,000 steps, I wasn't going out in -36 degree wind chills.

So I got creative.  I walked in place while I talked on the phone.  I put clothes away, one item at a time, leaving the basket in the sitting room and walking back and forth.  And finally, I watched a television show and walked in place.

Needless to say, I've made it to 10.000 steps each day.  Some of those steps were creative, but I got

them in.

I'm the mother of four, so finding a creative way to meet a goal is something I've done for years.  When I first started writing, my youngest hadn't started school yet.  Let me tell you, writing with four kids under foot takes a lot of creativity.  I called those years my "Vampire Years."  I wrote after they went to bed.  I wrote until my eyelids wouldn't stay up another minute.

And here I am, years later, more than fifty books.  Those Vampire Years paid off.  So, I'll be as creative as I need to be in order to get those steps in.

Oh, and my word of the year?? (I don't do resolutions—I pick a word to build my year around.) This year, my word is…you guessed it, STEP.  It sort of ties in nicely to my goal of 10,000 steps a day, and really does apply to my writing, too!  At the moment, I'm a bit swamped.  My desk is groaning.  But I'm simply taking things one step at a time.  The day before yesterday I finished galleys for June's Just One Thing, and yesterday I did a fact sheet for October's Christmas in Cupid Falls.  Today, I'm planning to work on a new article that's due in Feb and working on February's final Maid in LA Mystery, Swept Up…step by step, I'm crossing items off.

How about you??  Do you have a word of the year, a resolution, or simply some goal you're working toward?

Wishing you all a very happy 2014!!

Holly