The Power of EXTREMELY Minimal Goals

I wouldn't say this was a "resolution" for the new year. It was more just "something that needs to start happening NOW or I am going to be very, very sorry later on."

I am talking, alas, about exercise. 

Luckily, I have always loved walking. Indeed, walking is one of my four "pillars of happiness," things that make any day a good day and my life as a whole a good life: writing, reading, walking, friends. From my cottage it's a lovely 30-minute walk each direction to the main branch of the Boulder Public Library, Boulder Bookstore, the cute shops of Pearl Street, and the university campus. I am all set for blissful walking everywhere! 

But sad but true, I have come to realize that walking isn't enough. What about strengthening my shriveled, shrunken arms, weakened still further after not one but two fractures the year before last? What about squats and lunges, whatever they were? I had heard these were things other people thought important to do. 

I envy friends who have found a form of vigorous, rigorous exercise they actually love, who come home glowing after zumba, yoga, jazzercise, Crossfit. But whenever I have made a feeble attempt to try something like that, I have come home from the first class feeling even worse about myself and how bad I am at all of this.

SO: I gave up on trying to find a form of exercise I would love. I decided just to suck it up and do exercises I DON'T love for ten measly minutes a day, timed to the second. Couldn't I force myself to spend ten minutes a day as an investment in my future fitness and functionality? 

Dumbbells one day.

Squats, lunges, and stairsteps the next day.

Alternating back and forth FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. 

I have done this for a whole month now - hooray for me - and I have to say I am amazed at how much easier it has gotten. I've graduated from 3-pound weights to 4. At the start I could barely stand to do 5 squats. Now I can do 20. I even tried flexing my bent arm the other day, and I swear I could feel a little bulge there that might even be a . . . muscle!

As if to validate my new system, The New York Times published an article two weeks ago titled "How Little Exercise Can You Get Away With?" Their advice: "Aim for the minimum." 

Because (this is me again, and not the NYT), here is the one ginormous wonderful thing about extremely minimal goals: YOU ACTUALLY DO THEM!!!!! Take it from me: it is SOOOO much better to do a small something every single day, faithfully, than to talk about doing some big, daunting thing, and end up doing nothing at all. 

This is true for exercise. It's true for writing. It's true, period.