It is 2021, I have just turned 50 and I am worried about my health and the fact that I want to be like many of the people in my local neighbourhood who are 60 or older and very active. At the same time, my youngest son is preparing for Junior High School and my eldest son is preparing for University or whatever comes next after High School. There were many other things happening too which soaked up lots of energy on thinking about “What next?”. It is within this context that I started to wonder about the next 20 years or more . . . Why?
That answer is simple, my family and my desire to have a meaningful life with them, my community and my colleagues in HummingByrd. At 50, I was struggling to walk up the stairs in my house. I was struggling with weight and diet. And I would find out in the coming year some other factors as well.
At that time, I made the conscious decision to look after myself more. Self-leadership lay at the heart of my actions. I had to value and own the change I wanted to make. Many leaders and people in the wellness space talk about the importance of looking after yourself and while the message is constantly sent to us it is not until something happens or comes closer to home that you realise that is is also important to you. For me, it took the form of setting some solid targets of which I admit I have let some relax a little in the last 8 months. The first target was to walk 10,000 steps a day (or between 6.9 to 7.2km). If I did not achieve this on a particular day then I had to make those steps up on the following days within the same week. That meant walking 10,000 steps per day a month and ultimately 10,000 steps per day for a Year. In the beginning this was very challenging and I can remember having to psych myself up to go outside and go for my walk on a cold winter’s night.
Here I am rugging up pulling on a jumper (sweater), then the big heavy jacket and of course my favourite walking partner with me. My dog Sophia. To achieve 10,000 steps a day initially I did a morning walk and small walks and a night walk. I found it very hard to motivate myself to go and when there were a series of rainy or bad weather days that made it harder to achieve the target. I did not give up though and maintained the rule. Sometimes I was joined by members of my family which was super lovely and made the walk that much more fun.
The second target was no rice, breads and snack foods (such as chips, biscuits and sweats). To be honest I love my breads and snacks and this target was really hard for me to achieve. Recently, I relaxed a little and that has seen some weight go back on. What I learnt though was that once you stop these items you actually do not miss them. In a way they are an indulgence and are addictive. When I went shopping I had no desire to go to the snack aisle to buy snacks. I was quite amazed when I recognized this change in me. This is for me and I am not saying this is for everyone. My goal for 2024 was to start reducing items that fall into this area again. The challenge here was balancing my needs with the needs of others around me. A great leadership challenge. Critical to this was my thinking and ownership of my needs and recognizing they are different to others and that I must build my own mechanism for managing this.
The third target was to stabilize my use of tech in my life and sleep. That meant ensuring adequate sleeping time so that my body and more importantly my mind felt energetic. The rule here was to stay off tech after a fixed time. Initially this was 8pm. This has been relaxed slightly to 10pm. Though I have noticed that I have actually reduced this time. When I was younger I found it easy to operate on 4 or 5 hours sleep and to do the work I wanted to do. At the time I did not think about the impact of this on my health. Stabilising my sleep and use of tech let me increase my productivity and hence my effectiveness.
When I started this journey I was 107kg and I went down to 93kg. Now I am 95kg.
My Average Steps per Month over 4 Years
In 2024, I set a new target and that was to start running and weight training on top of my daily routine of walking. The reason for this was that I noticed a distinct loss of muscle in the upper body particularly. The second reason was I wanted to be able to continue to keep up with my family, enjoy travelling and doing what I want. To achieve this goal I joined a gym for the first time in over 10 years. I go two days a week. On one day I day swimming and pool walking and the other day I do weights, cycling and walking / running.
Looking forward to 2025, my goal is to run a 10k race.
Conclusion
When goals have REAL Meaning, it is much easier to own them. When they are directly linked to your life and what you are doing and want to do then they are linked to your values and taking ownership is much easier. These goals then become more than a goal but a part of who you are and this leads to change. Powerful change.
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
Albert Einstein
*If you are thinking about your goals and would like to try a free 90 minute coaching session, reach out to me: tim.tout@hummingbyrdinc.com
