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
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
