Not too long ago, I mentioned the virtual Optimize Local Zoom group I joined. It was such an epic hangout. I’m still beaming from the download of Love (and Wisdom + Self-Mastery + Courage + …). Seriously. It VERY MUCH reminded me of the graduation weekend where I got to hang out with 500+ of our inaugural Optimize Coaches—which will always be a highlight of my life. There’s just something magical about getting together with people who share your values and are playing the same game with the same intense commitment to play it well. And, of course, as we’ve discussed many (!) times, the fastest way to Optimize your life ISN’T the Wisdom side of things per se. It’s the COMMUNITY side of things. Join a Community with super-high standards and BOOM!—the best you is more likely to join the party. With COVID-19 taking over the world and creating the need for social distancing, we’ve pressed pause on our offline Optimize Local initiative. But… And I have goosebumps as I type this, we WILL be leaning back into that when the time is right. (I still can’t believe we had Optimizers from over 75 countries and 750 cities around the world who raised their hands to get involved.) For now, you can join one of those virtual Optimize Zoom meetups by cruising over here. But… That’s not quite the point of this +1. Today I want to chat about one of the little things that came up in our chat. One of our beloved Coaches shared how her fundamentals slipped a bit when COVID hit and she felt it. Then her Optimize Buddy challenged her to get her step count back up. So, she re-started her morning walk-hikes. And it changed her life. Then she wound up walking more and more and pretty soon she was, in her Optimize Buddy’s words, kicking his butt—and he loved it! I can’t remember the exact number of steps she said she was getting but I do remember the fact that she shared a WEEKLY stat. I was struck by the fact that you could have fun measuring your steps by both the DAY and the WEEK. Of course, it’s obvious when I type that out but I always thought of my 10,000+ steps per day and never really thought about it on a weekly basis other than looking at the average daily count over the last week that my Suunto watch shares with me. So… 10,000 is our “go crush this!” target for our Coaches—which of course, is 70,000 steps/week. But, what’s a target a little beyond that? I thought: 100,000 steps per week would be a pretty cool goal. Then I wondered: What’s 100,000 divided by 7? Answer: 14,285.7 Suunto tells me that my current 7-day average number of steps is 18,794—which is a) pretty ridiculous (lol) and b) a reflection of just how much I love walking on our new Trail multiple times per day—it’s the PERFECT oscillating reboot. So… 100,000. Isn’t that a beautiful, round number? Wanna go to the next level with your step count and movement throughout the day and join me?! No pressure (seriously) as I know we all have different constraints in our realities and different things that fire us up. AND… Let’s remember this wisdom from Kelly McGonigal’s The Joy of Movement and make sure we’re on the right side of these stats: “In the United States, daily physical activity—as captured by an accelerometer—is correlated with a sense of purpose in life. Real-time tracking also shows that people are happier during moments when they are physically active than when they are sedentary. And on days when people are more active than their usual, they report greater satisfaction with their lives. Other experiments in the U.S. and UK have forced moderately active adults to become sedentary for a period of time, only to watch their well-being wither. Regular exercisers who replace physical activity with a sedentary activity for two weeks become more anxious, tired, and hostile. When adults are randomly assigned to reduce their daily step count, 88 percent become more depressed. Within one week of becoming more sedentary, they report a 31 percent decline in life satisfaction. The average daily step count required to induce feelings of anxiety and depression and decrease satisfaction with life is 5,649. The typical American takes 4,774 steps per day. Across the globe, the average is 4,961.” Here’s to the Wisdom of knowing that movement matters and the Self-Mastery to go out and practice our philosophy when it matters most… TODAY.
