There is a saying: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” It begs the question: where do you want to be in 5 years?
2000 Days Gone By
Just over 2000 days ago, I started something I didn’t know I was starting. I had a new Apple Watch and decided to start tracking my runs with it. I was doing my best to run each day to stay in shape, and I thought this would help.
As I started tracking my runs, I realized that I could also make sure I burned a certain amount of calories. After a few days, I started to make sure I closed that ring, showing that I had burned my calories for the day.
My Obsession
It slowly became an obsession. I wanted to burn all my calories for the day, exercise for 30 minutes, and stand up and move around once for 12 hours to get all three rings. It just became something I focused on as the watch made me want to do it all the more.
I didn’t really think about it at the time. I had no plan, but 5 and a half years later, on Christmas Day of all days, I hit my 2,000 day streak – 2,000 days of uninterrupted success.
Which again begs the question: where do you want to be in 5 Years?
5 Years from Now
Have you thought about it: where you want to be in 5 years? Do you want to have a tree that was planted 5 years ago or do you want to be planting a tree? Do you want to be 5 years healthier or just starting a new exercise plan?
The thing is that every day is a day you can start, but you can’t have streaks until after you’ve started. If you want to change your future, you need to change now.
Make it a Game
it doesn’t have to be challenging. A lot of people start running by following Couch to 5K which simply starts with walking. You work your way up.
And it can be fun. Once the watch was involved, it was like I was winning prizes to get those rings and the onscreen rewards.
In fact, over at Zombie Goals, we make building strong habits into a game. We make it a lot of fun and show you the tips and tricks to make building those habits a blast.
Actually, I wrote about this very same thing over there, just – differently.
Where do you want to be in 5 years? Where you are now, or 5 years better?
