Have you ever struggled trying to develop a new habit?

About 6 years ago I set out to develop a new habit of early morning walks. It was just a test, and when I try something new or test something out that I think I might want to turn into a habit, I commit myself to 30 days. I figure, if it’s something I’m thinking so strongly about that I might want to incorporate it into my life long-term, then a 30 test period is something I shouldn’t have a problem committing to.

So I started walking,

Like with developing any new habit, you have to try and make doing it as friction free starting out as you can. So I set out my walking clothes the night before, got my headphones ready, and any inclement weather gear I might need, based on the forecast. And I set my alarm on my iPhone. No snoozing allowed. The alarm was labeled “Get Up, Get Out.”

I knew if I got up and got out as fast as I could, I wouldn’t have time to make any excuses. Or at least I’d be less likely to.

I think I went almost 8 months before I missed a day. Most weeks, I get between 5 and 7 good walks in.

Now, these walks are great for keeping me active, but honestly I do them more for my mental wellbeing than I do for my physical well being.

And I realized that while I’m out walking, I have some really healthy contemplation time. I guess it’s like when you have good ideas in the shower…because your mind is kind of in neutral and the contemplative and creative juices start flowing. So I started making a few voice memos on my phone occasionally. And even less occasionally I’d go back and listen to them. Deliberately anyways. But eventually I’d stumble across them and I realized that those voice memos would have been really helpful if I was more deliberate about going back and listening to them.

This happened again just the other day. I was going through my phone deleting things, and I saw all these old voice memos. And I listened through them. And again, I thought I need to do this more deliberately.

So I decided to do another test. I’m going to record my walks. And I’m going to post them…as some public accountability I guess. I decided that I’d just hit record while I’m walking and talk like I was talking to a friend. I guess that’s you.

So welcome to Episode 1 of Thoughts on Walks. The audio will be a bit raw, so if you’re willing to listen in, just know that you’ll probably hear traffic, dogs barking, me saying hello as I pass people, me sniffling, or the snow crunching under my feet as I walk…like it is now. It’s about 30 degrees fahrenheit and there are big puffy snowflakes falling. But it’s a beautiful day in my little village. It almost always is, and I love my walks.

I almost always walk with coffee, so from time to time I’ll stop and take a sip. So you may hear some slurping, too.

But for the most part I’ll just speak what comes to my mind…

Typically, I won't post long show notes, but since this is the first episode I thought I'd at least post these and the disclaimer that the audio recorded a little "hot." I'll dial it back next time.

Also, here are the books I mentioned in today's walk:

Charles Duhigg's Power of Habit

James Clear's Atomic Habits

Finally, when discussing Cazenovia Creek I got it's namesake's first name wrong. I said Adolfus Cazenove and it should have been Theophilus Cazenove. My bad, Theo...

Cheers!