The new thing I added last week was a second med-day dose—that’s one 20mg tablet in the morning and a second 20mg tablet about six or so hours later. I’m not consistent the times I take them, but the idea is to take the second one about an hour before the first one wears off so I don’t experience the crash, but do continue to have the positive effects throughout the afternoon and into the evening. My schedule isn’t the same every day–although I do try to get up at the same time every day, my routine can vary greatly, so I can’t really have cues built into my routine for when I take my medication. It needs to be taken with food (or about a half-hour before eating), and meals are one of those routines that varies greatly.

I was in Redmond, Washington last week teaching SharePoint to Microsoft employees. Regardless of which time zone I’m in, I now try to keep my body clock on my regular East Coast time–yes, this means that I get up at 3am and go to bed around 9pm when I’m on Pacific time. Since I feel like I’m on top of my game when I’m front of the classroom, and I didn’t want to risk still having a lot of stimulant in my system at bed time, I skipped the afternoon dose on those days. However, I did take the afternoon dose the other days.

The afternoon dose has been a very positive thing. The positive benefits do in fact continue throughout the afternoon and into the evening. Before the afternoon dose, as well as before I even started the medication, I was usually exhausted by 8pm or so. I wasn’t sleepy, but just didn’t have energy to do much of anything except read and the regular base things that interested me. With this second dose I can easily help my wife with housework, do other creative work, and I’m more fully engaged with the people who are with me.

I do still experience the crash, but it’s typically around 10pm or 11pm. I’m usually not doing much at that time except winding down anyway, so it’s not too bad. I just experience a sudden and immense tiredness that lasts for about an hour.

I have noticed that a couple evenings I had a harder time getting to sleep than usual. I would lie in bed, I was tired, but it took me a while to get to sleep. This doesn’t happen every night, but it has happened some. I also don’t think it’s happened two nights in a row either. Perhaps it’s because I’m back on getting a regular 5- to 6-hours of sleep each night instead of 8-hours (you’ll remember this is where I function best). If I don’t sleep well one night, I don’t seem to have a hard time getting to sleep the next night.

Concerning my physical health, I continue to find that I have more willpower to consistently make high-protein/low-carbohydrate food choices. I reduced my weight by three more pounds. If you’re not keeping up with that, that’s a total decrease of 14-pounds in 4 weeks (although this was my fifth week on the medication, I didn’t start making diet changes until the second week). Exercise (or rather ‘physical activity’, since I hate the word exercise) has gone well too. When I was in Seattle, I had one free afternoon after I had everything set up for my class and I went for an hour-and-a-half hike in Bridle Trails State Park. I brought a redeye flight back home Friday night and I had about an hour to kill in the Charlotte airport, so I went for a 3-mile walk around the airport. I felt really good from all that too. Last night I went hiking on the trails around Radnor Lake in Nashville, TN. Although the physical benefits of regular physical activity have never motivated me, the mental benefits do. I had an especially stressful day yesterday and I really needed to expend some energy and spend some time in nature as well. Although I didn’t ‘feel’ like doing it, I think the Ritalin does strengthen my willpower and ability to say ‘yes’ to the right things.

I’ve been both humbled and amazed at the people that have connected with me through reading these blog posts. A lot of people have opened up and shared about their experiences with Adult ADHD and their experiences with medication too. Everyone isn’t as comfortable sharing publicly about their mental disorders as I am. I’ve vowed to keep their secrets though and I have no intention of breaking that. I’m very much enjoying those friendships (both old and new) and the fact that we can talk about the trials and triumphs associated with this disorder. I mention this as a public way of thanking those people for connecting to me, and also to let others who are reading this know that you can contact me privately to talk about your Adult ADHD experience and you can know that I won’t judge you, nor will I share anything you share with me. Life’s journey is much easier and more enjoyable when we don’t feel like we’re on the path alone.

I’ll close with a book recommendation. If you are an Adult with ADHD, the book More Attention, Less Defecit: Success Strategies for Adults with ADHD by Dr. Ari Tuckman (visit his blog for lots of great articles and his podcast)  is something you should definitely read. It’s written as a collection of many short articles, written and organized in a style for readers with ADHD. There is an entire section in that book on ADHD medications. If you’re not yet taking any medication for your ADHD, I want to suggest that you pick up this book and read that section so you have some good background information. Don’t depend on your doctor to know everything about ADHD medication or to share everything she knows with you—this is your life, your body, and you mind, and you need to empower yourself with as much knowledge about how it all works as you can.

Generally speaking, this week’s experience was the same as previous weeks and I seem to have settled into a bit of a groove with it. At first I thought that some of the benefits I was experiencing may be due to the placebo effect, but now I think they really are due to the medication’s physiological effects of Ritalin on my brain chemistry.

Because I had experimented with taking two pills on three mornings (by my doctor’s direction), my prescription was for 30-pills, and there were 28-days between doctor visits, I had to go one day without taking a pill at all. Since I feel the most “in the zone” when I’m teaching, I decided to make one of those days my day off the medication. The day went well, but I did notice that in the evening I was feeling more lonely and generally down, especially that evening.

I had another successful week eating a high-protein/low-carbohydrate diet and reduced my weight by another 3-pounds. That’s a total decrease of 11-pounds in 3-weeks. The Ritalin seems to strengthen my willpower and makes it much easier to make better choices, even while traveling.

Yesterday morning I had my follow-up doctor appointment. He was well pleased with my progress too. My heart rate and blood pressure was fine, he was really excited about my weight decrease, he was glad I was happy with the positive changes in my thoughts, and he was glad my wife was happy with the changes as well. Two weeks ago she mentioned to him at church on Wednesday night that she was much happier with me now. Yesterday he told me that was a really good thing because sometimes the person being treated feels great but his family is miserable. I’m thankful to have a doctor who is a brother in Christ to keep me in check and a godly wife to encourage me support me. These are two great blessings in my life.

My doctor has asked me to add a tablet in the afternoon, about an hour before my usual crash to keep the medication in my blood stream longer. Neither he nor I want the crash to happen in the middle of the work day and neither of us want it to happen in the early to mid-evening either when it may interfere with activities with my wife.

Yesterday was my first day taking an afternoon dose and it went well. I was really productive and focused all day long, even into the evening. I experienced my crash around 10pm and it seemed to be a harder crash than ones I experienced in the afternoons.

My doctor asked me about my sleeping patterns and I told him that has been fine. In fact, I’ve been able to get back on my 5- to 6-hours a night schedule which is typically where I function best—however, left to my own I can easily sleep (or rather lay there) for 8- or 9-hours just thinking and wear myself out for the day. I don’t think I slept much at all last night. I resisted the temptation to look at the clock and I think that for most of the evening I was in a state almost somewhere between awake and asleep but not entirely in either one. This is something I’ll need to continue monitoring.

This week I’ll be in Redmond Washington teaching SharePoint to Microsoft’s employees. I try to stay on my East Coast time schedule regardless of which time zone I’m in, so that means that I’ll be getting up around 3am. I’m not sure when I’ll eat breakfast or have my first caffeine, or when I’ll take my pills. I’ll just have to see how things work out. Also, I’ll be coming back on a red-eye flight. Those are always tough as well, especially since I don’t usually sleep well on planes. I’ll end up with about a 30-hour day between waking and getting to nap in my bed. So I think the time zone challenges and the cross-country travel will be huge things to deal with this week. I’ll let you know how it all went next week!

The big experiment for me this week was to try taking two pills in the morning—my doctor prescribed either one or two each morning. I did this for only two days and didn’t have a good experience at all. I felt very nervous and kind of light-headed all morning long and my afternoon crash was much worse than with only one. One day I had no caffeine and the second day I consumed my regular amount of caffeine and things were about the same both days. I couldn’t function well at all on that level of medication so I decided to go back to just on 20mg tablet a day.

In general I continued to have the same experience as in previous weeks. I was able to focus better and generally felt more positive and outgoing–the “subtle but significant” changes I’ve blogged about before. One day had some contracts to read and I noticed that I was able to focus and understand them much more easily than usual. I typically have to read, re-read, and sometimes re-read a paragraph yet again in a contract to understand it. A coworker even told me he had a hard time with those contracts so I felt that was a very positive thing.

On Sunday I didn’t feel like I took a pill at all. I woke up hyper-focusing on some negative things and noticed it was easier to ignore them right after taking my pill. Then it soon started back again. I wasn’t able to focus much in church either and I felt very frustrated most of the day. I didn’t experience the afternoon crash either. It was as if I hadn’t taken a pill at all that day.

I didn’t get in much exercise this week, so that could have been a factor on Sunday as well. I did work outside around the house installing new shutters and window boxes on the house, so that was physical, but not as exhausting as my usual hikes.

I was able to continue strictly on my high-protein/low-carbohydrate style of eating this week. I only reduced my weight by two-pounds, which was a little frustrating after the six-pound reduction last week, but that’s OK. We’ll see how next week goes. I do think the Ritalin strengthens my willpower in that area.

I’m teaching a SharePoint training class in Dallas, TX this week, so next week’s post may be brief as well since I don’t feel like I need any extra help when I’m teaching. I go back to my doctor next Monday and we’ll see if he wants me to stay on the same medication at the same level, wants me to add an afternoon dose, wants me to try a different medication, or wants to do something else. So I should at least have that to report.

I was teaching a SharePoint Training Class in Chicago for most of this week. I feel like I’m on top of my game when I’m teaching, so the thought had occurred to me that maybe I shouldn’t take my “power pellets” this week (Note: some people call their antidepressants their “happy pills” so I now refer to my ADHD meds as my “power pellets”). My doctor wanted me to take either one or two each day, but my prescription was for 30-days and there are 28-days between visits. So in order to test this I’ll have to go without for a few days. I eventually decided that this early in the testing phase that I shouldn’t skip it and that I should stick with just one pill per day.

I noticed that I felt more outgoing and uninhibited this week. I’m not sure if that was due to the medication or due to the fact that I got a free upgrade on my rental car and I was driving a Dodge Challenger muscle car around all week. I found myself engaging strangers in conversation more easily and joking and picking with my students even more than I usually do. As usual, my students really enjoyed the class. In fact, since this is my blog, I’m going to toot my own horn a little and publish some of their survey comments about me as an instructor:

• Ricky – very upbeat and entertaining; obviously very knowledgeable of SharePoint; explained things well.
• Ricky was great. He is obviously very knowledgeable, and he does a good job of bringing tech-y stuff down to everyday user level.
• Ricky is knowledgeable and enthusiastic. I appreciate his flexibility in approaching the course content – he struck a great balance between the demos, lectures and presentations.
• Ricky kept everyone interested and entertained. He also provided real world examples to give us some kind of idea of how real businesses are using certain SharePoint features. I think Ricky did a great job in covering the material specified in the course outline and providing little bonus demos depending on the questions asked. I can’t think of anything at the moment that he should improve on.
• Ricky- good instructor very knowledgeable, the demos were very informative. He was a very good instructor.
• Ricky was excellent. No improvement necessary.

This brings me to another thing I’ve been experiencing that I attribute to the medication. I don’t seem to care nearly as much about what other people think. At one time I wouldn’t have posted those comments because I wouldn’t have wanted to appear proud. I would have thought about it, wrestled with the idea, and then decided not to. However, I feel like I’m going with my instincts on some things more now. I guess time will tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

I know that people with ADHD are known for blurting out things without thinking about the consequences. I’ve always been exactly the opposite–I think carefully before I say almost anything. I choose my words carefully, I think about how others might respond, I think about my response, and their response to that. It’s kind of like a chess player thinking through the next several moves in a game of chess. I can do this quite easily and incredibly rapidly. Like most people with ADHD I do tend to interrupt people a lot when they are talking. This is because they’ve said something that has triggered a thought, I’ve thought several comments ahead about how it will play out, and now I can’t wait to make my comment. This was all nearly an unconscious thing for many years and a few months ago I became conscious of it. When I realized it, I asked my wife if she did that and she was amazed that I do it. I think this behavior is something I developed as a coping mechanism many years ago.

Although I’ve seen significant improvement in many areas, I feel like I’ve slipped in others. This morning I misplaced my wallet and spent about 10-minutes looking for it until I found it. Last night I let the dog out and forget about her until the neighbors found her up the street and brought her back home. Although these are things that are common for many people with ADHD, I’ve usually had systems to keep them from happening and now those systems seem to be failing a little more. Perhaps it’s just coincidental. I don’t know but I think it’s worth noting.

In spite of the failing systems, I feel happier in general. I’m much more care free. I’m not stressing about every little thing. I remember on my job interviews in the past, one of my weaknesses was that I was too detail oriented and that I needed to loosen up and allow myself to make more mistakes. I kind of feel like maybe I’m there now.

When I worked with the excellent productivity coach Tara Rodden Robinson a couple years ago, she pointed out to me that I had a lot of negative self-talk as I shared about myself. She mirrored some of my comments back to me and I was surprised–if someone else had said those same things I would have realized how negative that person was were about himself. I think I’m now thinking much more positively about myself and the things I do. I’m not sure where the medication fits in with that, but it’s significant and worth noting.

I think the biggest benefit for me so far is still recognizing that I’m tired and then giving myself permission to rest without feeling like I have to be doing something. I recognize both physical tiredness and mental tiredness as well. Before, I felt like I had to be constantly doing something. Now I don’t feel that need nearly as much. When I get tired I go rest. I realize that resting and recharging are two different things and I’m experimenting with some things that might help me recharge. I used to feel that I should be able to do mental work all day long. However, now I see that mental work is much like physical work, that I’m not a machine, and I can only do so much each day. I don’t have to feel bad about that, I don’t have to apologize for that, and I don’t have to cover it up. This is very empowering!

Another benefit last week was that I was able to get back on my high-protein/low-carbohydrate way of eating. It was rather easy for me to do this even though I was traveling. In the process I reduced my weight by six pounds! That was weight I had gained over the past month or so, but it was still good to be able to knock it off so quickly and to so easily get back on track. So I think the Ritalin has strengthened my willpower in this area.

I asked my wife for a comment on changes and she simply said, “You’re a lot nicer.” In the words of Captain Spock I find that, “Fascinating!”

I did discover one negative pattern yesterday. It wasn’t apparent when I was teaching last week, but in retrospect over the past couple weeks, I find that around 2pm in the afternoon I suddenly feel very tired. It seems to last for about an hour. I think this might be a ‘crash’ from the Ritalin wearing off about that time. My doctor said we may try adding a second mid-day dose after this first month trial. If this is a ‘crash’ and it is inevitable, then it would be helpful if that was closer to bedtime.

Next week I’ll be taking two pills each morning, 40mg, for most of the work week, so I should have some new things to report.

However, I do set goals for things I would like to achieve over the course of the year. In recent years, I’ve fallen short of several of my goals in several areas. I’ve met some of my goals, but I haven’t done nearly as well as I would have liked.

My Weekly Goals

Usually I’ll set a goal for things like a certain weight I would like to achieve or certain projects I would like to finish or other similar things. Since my diagnosis with Adult ADD (Attenion Defecit Disorder), I’ve been thinking about things in terms of the amount of attention I give them. This has led to a change in my goals for 2012 and how I track those goals.

I’ve given myself a set amount of attention I would like to apply to in certain areas on a weekly basis. Here are those areas:

• Work 5-hours on Mindful Worship
• Work 5-hours on Spears Technologies
• Work 5-hours on my college studies at West Coast Bible College
• Create something worth sharing
• Hike for 3-hours
• Eat high-protein/low-carbohydrate for 5-days
• Interact socially for 3-hours
• Encourage others 10-times

There are other areas of my life I want to work on, but these are the areas I’ve fallen short in the most over the past year and want to work on this year. I’ll probably add more areas later on, especially as I find better ways to quantify the amount of attention I invest in the area.

Why Have I Chosen A Weekly Break-Down of Attention Invested?

I’ve wanted to bring my goals down to an area where I feel like I have more control and I can invest more energy and attention. For example, you’ll notice that two of my goals are related to health and fitness (hike for 3-hours and eat high-protein/low-carbohydrate for 5-days). Ultimately, the results of this will be reflected in a decrease in my weight. However, if I set a goal to decrease my weight by a certain number of pounds, it’s easy to get discouraged if I do well and don’t see the decrease in weight (or as rapid a decrease as I would like). However, by doing these two things consistently on a weekly basis, I know I’m moving toward an over-arching goal of improved health and fitness.

Last year I set a goal to publish 25 new Mindful Worship meditations; I only published one and that was way back in January. I also set a goal to write a book in the area of Christian meditation and I didn’t do any work on it at all. Both of these things are too big for me to get my around fully and although I know they are achievable, they seem too big and it’s easy to get discouraged and sidetracked.

I’m Tracking My Goals with Grades

Each of these goals is an ideal. I realize that I’m not going to meet each of these goals every week—it’s just not possible. So, I’ve decided to give myself a letter grade in each area. Here is how those letter grades are calculated:

• Work 5-hours on Mindful Worship
  Grades: 5=A; 4=B; 3=C; 2=C; 1=D; <1=F
  
• Work 5-hours on Spears Technologies
  Grades: 5=A; 4=B; 3=C; 2=C; 1=D; <1=F
  
• Work 5-hours on my college studies at West Coast Bible College
  Grades: 5=A; 4=B; 3=C; 2=C; 1=D; <1=F
• Create something worth sharing
  Grades: Yes=A; No=F
• Hike for 3-hours
  3=A; 2=B; 1=C; .5=D; <.5=F
• Eat high-protein/low-carbohydrate for 5-days
  5=A; 4=B; 3=C; 2=C; 1=D; <1=F
• Interact socially for 3-hours
  3=A; 2=B; 1=C; .5=D; <.5=F
• Encourage others 10-times
  9-10=A; 7-8=B; 5-6=C; 3-4=C; 1-2=D; <1=F

Most weeks, I should be able to reach a satisfactory “C” level in most of these areas. In fact, I should be able to reach excellent “A” or great “B” grade in most of them. Some weeks I will find that I need improvement “D” or totally fail “F” in an area, and that’s OK and to be expected. No one is perfect. However, by investing a small amount of attention in each of these areas each week, I know that I’ll be moving in the direction I want to move in regarding these areas of my life. A lower grade just means I’m not moving as quickly as I would like while a higher grade means I’m moving along at a good clip.

The other nice thing about weekly grades is that I start with a fresh slate each week. I may get a “D” or “F” in an area one week and then get two or three “A”s in following weeks. By starting each new week with a clean slate, I’m motivated to do some work in that area the next week.

At this point, I do plan to calculate monthly and quarterly summaries.

Questions and Comments

I’ve read dozens of books on motivation, organization, and goal setting. I don’t recall reading about anyone else setting and tracking goals exactly this way, so you may have some questions. If you do, please ask them below. You may have questions about how I chose a particular goal or the details behind one. Ask that below too. You may have ideas for how to expand on this idea; if you do, please share those below for others’ benefit.

Over the years I’ve attempted to form exercise habits in spite of my distaste for it. I’ve employed a number of psychological tricks over the years to aid in forming a physical fitness regimen. It has never lasted, however. You may even recall my experiment a few years ago where I set out to walk at least 45-minutes a day for 40-days in a row through the use of a Paper Clip Chain. That worked for about 42 days. I never got to the point where it was a habit or where I really wanted to do it. I’ve tried several other similar things over the years and nothing has ever stood the test of time.

A number of things have conspired to inspire me to add regular physical activity to my life. I normally don’t get a lot of physical activity during my day. I sit at a desk and work on a computer most of the day and I haven’t had any strong desire to be more physically active.

I recently read The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance by Tony Schwartz, and one of the thing he talks about in that book about how our bodies affect our overall work. The book is about brining balance in to all areas of our lives for maximum energy, engagement, and productivity. It’s certainly not a book on health, diet, and exercise, but there are a couple chapters related to this. In chapter 7 he writes, “Experts say we need twenty to forty-five minutes of exercise three to six days a week…” After reading that, it has been in the back of my mind as something I needed to start doing again.

I’ve also shared about how I’ve been dealing with depression in my life. As I’ve talked with others, some have indicated that regular exercise also plays a role in regulating the chemicals in the brain that are related to depression. Some have shared that they can really tell a difference if they don’t work out for a few days. So, I thought that exercising might help me as well.

Along with depression, the medicine that I’m on has a known side effect of weight gain. In fact, I gained 3 pounds the first two weeks that I was on it, and I made a strong effort to eat less because I knew this was a likelihood. I’m already quite over weight and I don’t need anything else to add to it.

So, I’m trying something new now, and it is working so far. A couple weeks ago I decided to go for a 1-mile walk around my neighborhood right after I got up in the morning. I didn’t enjoy it, but it did seem to make me feel better throughout the day. The next morning I changed the route a little bit to a 1.2-mile route that took me about 24-minutes. This was a more challenging route that takes me over steep rolling hills which provides some nice intervals during the time I’m walking. This is the route I’m doing now.

I’ve decided that I’m only going to do this on regular work days (typically Monday through Friday) and not on weekends, holidays, or when weather doesn’t permit. And I’ve decided that I’m not going to feel guilty on those days that I don’t go. There is a good chance that I’ll get more physical activity during the regular course of the day when I’m not working as well.

Another thing that has changed this time is that I’m not doing this to lose weight. I certainly would like to lose weight, and I hope this will help, but weight loss isn’t my goal; I also don’t consider my walks to be a tool for weight loss.

So far, these three things have helped to solve a couple problems with my past experiences. First, in the past I’ve made my walks to be at least 45-minutes to 1-hour; that’s a long time! By cutting that in half to 20- to 25-minutes, it’s much more agreeable. Second, in the past I’ve made it an everyday event with no room for exception. By making it a workday only thing, I can look forward to breaks on weekends and holidays. Third, by eliminating the goal of weight loss I’m not looking for results that I may not see every day.

More than anything, I’m doing this because I seem to feel better because of it. Last Friday I slept later than usual and thought that I would just skip my walk. I felt drawn to go ahead and walk anyway, so I just went later than usual. I don’t know how to describe the feeling exactly, but it is kind of like that feeling where you know you need a shower or need to brush your teeth–you just feel icky if you haven’t done it. I feel physically icky when I don’t walk on the days I should now.

A word to my critics: You may be thinking that 20- to 25-minutes walking isn’t enough exercise. That’s OK. What I’m doing is certainly better than nothing. You might even say that it walking isn’t challenging enough. The route I take is over rolling hills which provides some extra resistance. Also, if you know me in person, you recognize that I weigh nearly twice what the charts say I should. So, I’m moving a lot of extra weight on that walk as well. If you can imagine walking this distance over rolling hills while carrying someone on your back who weighs about the same as you do, you can get idea for what my walk is like. It’s a pretty good work out in my opinion.

So, why am I sharing this? I know how difficult it has been for me to add physical activity to my life over the years. I’m hoping that by sharing what is currently working for me that others will be encouraged as well. Perhaps something similar will work for you as well. Also, by sharing this publicly, it provides a certain amount of accountability–which is always a great motivator. If I’ve inspired you to try something like this too, let me know in the comments! Happy walking!

No. It’s actually Day 31. The truth is that I fell off the wagon back on what would have been Day 24 and Day 25.

On Sunday, August 12th, I taught Sunday School at church, so I decided to polish my lesson that morning instead of walking. I knew that I could make it up later in the day. During the afternoon, temperatures were near 100 degrees, so I decided to wait until it cooled off in the evening. Our dog had been having stomach problems for a few days and by Sunday evening she was dehydrated and unable to keep water down. We had to take her to the Veterinarian Emergency Clinic about 8:30pm, and we didn’t get back until nearly midnight. I had missed my chance to walk during that day.

On Monday, I had my own little pity party over not making my 40-days-in-a-row goal, so I didn’t walk then either. 

On Tuesday, I decided that none of that really mattered very much anyway, so I started walking again. I stressed a little bit over whether I should start back over at Day-1 or not. Over the next few days, I realized that it was no longer about reaching the 40-days-in-a-row goal; it was just about forming the habit, and after 21 days, the habit had been formed. I could break the habit if I chose to, but that would be my choice. I think the 2-day break was a positive thing because it gave me an opportunity to prove to myself that I had really formed the habit.

While walking yesterday morning, I got another great revelation. I don’t have to improve at exercising. Exercise doesn’t have to be challenging or competitive. But I do need to it regularly, and there is benefit in doing so.

When I first started this experiment, I felt that I needed to increase my walking speed, or continually push myself to walk further and to walk more strenuous routes. In retrospect, that was a ridiculous thought. Here is my current perspective. If someone didn’t bathe daily, and wanted to build the habit of showering every day, they wouldn’t likely try to scrub a little harder every day, or try to spend a little longer under the water each day. They would simply bathe at whatever level fit their perception of good hygiene and be done with it. If someone wanted to develop the habit of getting their email inbox to zero every day, they wouldn’t try to get more email so they could process more, nor would they be likely to race against the clock to see if they could get to zero faster than the day before. They would probably be content to just get to zero every day and form the habit, and the associated comfort level, of having an empty inbox.

So, where did I get this warped idea that I had to continually improve at exercise? I was meditating on this during my walk this evening, and the best I can tell, it was taught to me in Physical Education class during my 12-years of school. We weren’t taught to just be active, nor were we taught the benefits of being active at a moderate level. We were taught that to compete against each other, and ourselves, to continually improve. We were taught that by the end of the semester we needed to be able to run faster, or do more push ups, or make more goals than we could at the beginning of the semester.

I was academically aggressive, but I was physically challenged. Physical fitness wasn’t one of my strengths–pardon the pun. It was no problem for me to be able to read a higher level, or do more complex math at the end of a semester, but it was a real challenge for me to do better physically. And it was a challenge that I didn’t like. My poor marks in this area reinforced that.

Schools offered math and English classes for students that had various strengths or weaknesses in those areas, but physical education classes were for everyone. The starting quarterback for the football team, and the kid that was 50-pounds over weight and 6 inches under tall, were likely to be in the same P.E. class. The quarterback learned to continue excelling in his strengths, and the over-weight kid learned that he wasn’t cut out for sports and exercise.

If a student was poor at math, he was placed in a class where he could continue to use math, but at a lower level. If a student was poor at reading, she was placed in a class where she could continue to read, but at a lower level. I believe this may have caused many of those students to continue using the math or reading skills they did have, long after they left school. Students that were poor at physical fitness, on the other hand, were never taught the benefits of continuing to do some physical activity every day, even if it wasn’t at a high level. We were never taught that it was OK to walk for 45-minutes every day. In fact, if we walked around the track when we were told to run, we were scolded and ridiculed by both the teacher and our peers.

There is some challenge to my daily walks, but mostly it’s a matter of just getting started each day. Even if I never get any faster, or make my routine more challenging, yet I walk at least 3 miles every day, I will have walked over 1,000 miles at the end of a year, and probably burned an extra 200,000 calories. That’s no small accomplishment!

If someone didn’t read well, but read 5 pages in a book each day, she would read over 1,800 pages in a year, or probably about 6 or 7 books a year. According to one survey, 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school, and 42% of college graduates never read another book. Even at a very moderate pace, a poor reader can reap major benefits by reading a small amount each day.

It’s very liberating after all these years to finally realize why I’ve always hated to exercise. Now that I have come to terms with my own weaknesses in that area, I don’t have to compare myself to others, yet I can still reap some benefits of daily exercise. Some people may be fine running for an hour a day, or lifting weights, or playing basketball. I don’t have to measure up to that. I’ve found an activity that works well for me. I’ve joined the ranks of people that exercise daily, even though I’m no athlete. Little by little, over time, I’ll even do more than many people who consider themselves to be athletic. I have the habit of walking every day, and it feels great!

A couple weeks ago I bought an Olympus WS-300M Digital Voice Recorder. I had been having a lot of great thoughts during my walks, but didn’t have a real good way to capture them. I had my Palm T|X in my pocket, but I couldn’t very well use the notepad while I was walking. I also had my cell phone in my pocket, but the voice recorder on it was just too clunky to use. I own a micro cassette tape recorder, but it is bulkier than I wanted to carry around with me. I knew that I needed to get a small light-weight digital voice recorder. I didn’t really want to spend hours trying to figure out which model was best, so I depended on a friend. Back in January, Matthew Cornell posted his Notes on using a digital voice recorder for taking reading notes. In that post he talked about the research he had done and why he chose the Olympus WS-300M. I didn’t see any reason to do all that work again myself, so I bought the same model. Thanks Matt!

Most professional tend to agree that if we do any activity for 21 days in a row that it will become a habit. I am now 2 days past the habit forming stage. I set a 40-day goal, which will give me an extra 19 days of confirmation to myself that the habit has been firmly established. I chose 40-days because, throughout history, 40 has been a number associated with testing and completion.

I have noticed that over the past few days it has actually been much more difficult for me to walk. Part of that has been due to the intense heat wave in our area, but I think there have been other reasons as well. I also haven’t been eating very healthy in the last few days. I have eaten more high-carbohydrate foods such as french fries and bread, I’ve eaten more sweets and deserts, and I’ve even drank some beverages with both sugar and caffeine in them. I tend to think that my diet has been the primary reason that my body has felt tired and my joints have felt stiff. I’m sure that when I would eat like this in the past that it had a negative effect on my overall feeling as well, but I didn’t notice it because I didn’t have a single point that I could focus on to reveal to me how much of an effect it had.

In this sense, the habit of walking has served much like a compass for me. When I am eating well, the walk is easier and my body feels better. As I eat more poorly, the needle of the compass shifts, revealing how much of an effect those poor diet choices actually have.

This past week I was traveling for four days, teaching a class near Nashville, Tennessee. I’m usually there at least once, and sometimes twice, a month, but I rarely leave the little area between the hotel and the office because they are right next to each other. Since I had four different walks this week, I trekked out in a different direction each day. It was really nice to explore the area and see some area I’ve never seen before. I even found some new restaurants that are within walking distance–of course, as Stephen Wright says, “Everything is walking distance if you’ve got the time.”

When I’m at home, I usually walk the same route, and walk it in the morning. When I’m traveling, I typically walk in the evening. This affords me some time to change gears after teaching all day. I also tend to walk further when I walk in the evenings because I don’t usually have time-sensitive things to do in the evenings. I walk in the mornings on my last day because I know I won’t have any other opportunity to fit in an hour for walking that day. Because I have to be in class at a certain time, that walk is usually only an hour long. When I walk in the evenings, it’s not uncommon to walk for two hours or more.

Overall, I don’t feel that I’ve changed much in the last two weeks, but when I look at those things I can quantify, I can see a lot of changes in a small amount of time:

• I’ve lost five pounds.
• I haven’t made a conscious effort to change my eating habits, but I’ve noticed that I’m eating less and making healthier choices. If I really want a desert, or a bigger portion, I’ll get it, but I find that I want these much less than before I was walking daily.
• I’m sleeping better and sleeping less.
• I’ve shaved 8 minutes off my regular 2.7-mile walk around my neighborhood–what used to take me an hour now takes me 52 minutes.

I’ve been thinking about some of my reasons I’ve been particularly successful with this goal. I think the biggest reason is because I’ve made it the perfect size for me. I’ve allowed a lot of flexibility as well. I think that most of us make our goals far too rigid when they don’t have to be. Then we beat ourselves up and get discouraged when we don’t meet those goals. My overall goal is to, “Walk for 45-minutes for 40 days in a row.”

• It includes a relatively short time frame that I ought to be able to work into most days, regardless of how busy I may be.
• I can exceed the specified time frame if I want to, and I have exceeded it every day, but the minimum that I allow myself is very doable.
• It’s not dependent on any particular location. If I had added, “on a treadmill” to the goal, then I would limit myself to only those times and locations where a treadmill was available. By keeping the goal flexible I increase my options and also the likelihood that I’ll be successful.
• I can walk any time that works for me. If I had added, “first thing every morning” to the goal, then that would also be a limiting factor that would discourage me the first time I over slept.
• The goal isn’t dependent on many external pieces. I don’t need much special equipment or a special location. I do need to travel with my walking shoes, athletic socks, and t-shirts now, but other than that, I don’t need much else to be successful. I’ve already proven that I can walk in the rain (after last Friday’s thunderstorm), but I could also walk the halls of a hotel or a local mall if I needed to.

I think there is a clear lesson here that when we are building a habit, we need to be very careful to make those steps the perfect size for us, with the perfect amount of flexibility so that we will stick with them. What have you discovered about  the flexibility with your own goals?

When I posted on Tuesday evening about Day 5, I was out of town; a friend and I had just walked 6 miles round-trip for dinner. It was very encouraging to have this friend with me this week.

Wednesday evening, we went to downtown Naperville and walked 3 miles in about an hour on the Naperville Riverwalk. I really enjoy walking beside water. When I was in 8th and 9th grade, we lived in Long Beach, North Carolina (now called Oak Island). I could walk on the beach for hours–and I still can when I get the chance to go there. I can do the same thing walking through the woods. I guess I just love being out in nature. Naperville’s Riverwalk is a nice bit of nature nestled inside a nice small town.

On Thursday I knew that the class would be over at 2:30pm and I had a 6:06pm flight out of O’Hare. I wouldn’t get home until around 10:30pm, so I knew that I would have to walk early in the morning. I told my friend that he was welcome to meet me in the hotel lobby at 6:00am if he wanted to. When I arrived, he was already there.

When we walked outside it was sprinkling rain, but just a little bit. I hadn’t brought my poncho, but I always keep a plastic sandwich bag in my wallet. I put my Palm and my phone in the sandwich bag so they would stay dry even if it started to rain harder. A few years ago, I had a Palm drown on me in an unexpected downpour–I’ve carried a sandwich bag in my wallet ever since.

We had planned to walk for an hour around a residential neighborhood that is near the hotel. About 40-minutes into our walk, the bottom seemed to fall out of the clouds. It was raining extremely hard, lightening filled the sky, and thunder filled the free space in the air between the raindrops. We were already headed back to the hotel, but after 20-minutes of walking in this downpour, we were as soaked as if we had jumped into the hotel pool fully clothed. I think some of the hotel staff had a good laugh at us as we came in the door.

I had completed my goal for the day though and learned that regardless of the circumstance, I can force myself to push on through. That’s a powerful lesson to learn when you’re building a habit. Most of us slack off at the first sign of difficulty. If we can push through though, we will be much stronger later–smaller challenges will be easy to overcome and we will have more strength for the bigger challenges.

This morning I woke up at home in my own bed and I still didn’t really feel like going walking, so it’s not a habit yet. My first thoughts were, “I need to get up and go for my walk.” I know that I’m moving in the right direction because my mind is expecting me to walk, regardless of whether I feel like it or not.

When I returned from my walk this morning, it felt really great to double the length of my chain by adding FOUR paper clips onto it. Speaking of the chain, I was just reading Zen To Slim: A Simple, 5-Step Weight Loss Plan by Leo over at Zen Habits. The article is well worth reading. One thing he says about exercise is:

It’s important that you try to do it every day. Mark your successes on your calendar — gold stars always work well — and try to keep the marks going every day. If you can do short, easy workouts, and mix up the exercises a little, you can do it every day.

Some of you are starting to post in the comments about how you are starting to build new habits and how you are tracking your progress with some sort of chain (even if it’s marks on a calendar). If you’re inspired to join us in this experiment, drop a comment and let us know!