What strategies have you come up with to ensure 2023 is a great year for you? Do you have any set goals and, if so, what plans have you laid to bring them to fruition? I don't mean hopes and dreams here, I mean set goals. Share one or two and the plans you have to bring to reality. Write at least 350 words.
My goal for 2023 would be to clock an average of 8,000 steps on a daily basis.
I am not quite a fan of new year resolutions or goal setting at this time of the year BUT let me share the background behind this goal. So I was on leave from work last week and chilling at the cafe (as usual) after some exercise, and I was playing around with my phone and there was this app called Samsung Health. When I opened it, I was both amazed and stunned to see that the app has recorded the number of steps that I took every single day since 2014!
Have plotted them in the chart above. So it seemed like there were 3 "phases" of my level of activity. And I tried to analyse what was the cause in the difference.
- Phase 1 (2014 to 2015): This was my usual steps back in those days as an working adult with just the average social life.
- Phase 2 (2016 to 2019): Pokemon Go (I am sure you would have heard of the game!) came about in 2016 and looking back, it really contributed to the step count because many weekends were spent exploring different parts of the city to find rare Pokemons and hatching those 10km eggs!
- Phase 3 (2020 to 2022): No prizes for guessing what caused the big drop. Covid. Lockdowns. Many days were spent "chilling" at home because we had to minimise going outdoors for most parts of the year with multiple variants/waves taking turns to reinstate those restrictions.
I was able to break down the step count in 2020 by months and the result was not a surprise at all, with April and May 2020 being the most inactive months before things gradually got better. (My friend was telling me this somewhat resembled the stock index as well. Lol.)
Anyway, going back to the topic, I was actually quite shocked that my step count for this year (2022) didn't recover back to the "pre-Covid" level which was about 6,000 steps if you were to exclude the "Pokemon" effect. In fact, the most shocking part was it is currently even lower than 2020! I think telecommuting had a part to play because working from home on some days meant almost zero steps for the day. Regardless, this definitely is not a healthy trend so it's time I put in some effort to do something about my activity level.
So how do I plan to achieve my target of 8,000 steps? For a start, I have decided to mark out Tuesday and Thursday evenings after work to exercise and be active. By making a conscious effort to include exercise into my schedule, it's less likely to be forgotten or be overwritten by other commitments. To make sure I am on track, I plan to monitor my step count at least once a month and make adjustments when necessary. Finally, the ultimate goal is to be more active and be healthier in 2023 so even though I am formally setting a goal, I shall enjoy this process and not be overly stressed about it. Let's see what happens in the coming months!
So that's all for my sharing! A little longer this time so thanks for reading all the way! Feel free to share with me your thoughts too! Have a pleasant weekend ahead!