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Thursday 23 October 2008

Counting

In the last month, I've been trying to be more consistent about wearing my pedometer. My goal is to get at least 10,000 steps every day. Now that I'm not babysitting and I have the freedom to take a little more time to get places, I've decided to try and walk and only drive when I have to. I'm excited about this and know it will make a difference. (I'll have to see if I can keep that excitement up when it is -25 C and the wind is blowing.)

Because I don't go anywhere most days, it is a struggle to get that many steps. Going up and down the stairs to the basement doesn't add up very fast. Yesterday I found out that it takes about 300 steps to walk the length of a block, so even just walking the eight block round trip to the post office only gives me 2400 steps. Sometimes it is discouraging how slowly the number creeps up.

When I'm not counting steps, I'm counting words. Some days my word count soars and other days I struggle to reach my goals. There are days when I feel like I've really gotten somewhere and then I check my word count. Usually a big mistake. There never are as many words as I think there should be.

Why do I put so much effort into counting? When those steps add up and I keep at it every day, I feel better and the pounds start to melt away. And when those words add up, I see my novel grow and know that I am that much closer to the end of the story. Someday I'll get a treadmill and type and walk at the same time. Too bad it all has to do with numbers. I was never that good at math.

3 comments:

Jewel Allen said...

I feel the same way. I think, ok let's do a word count check, and it usually doesn't seem as much as I've been laboring over :-).

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

Amen to that. My life seems to involve a lot of counting lately as well. I've never been a numbers person, but being able to quantify my progress seems to mean a lot to me.

Happy counting!

Tristi Pinkston said...

I don't know if I could type and write at the same time -- I'm not that coordinated. I think it would be like patting my head and rubbing my tummy at the same time and I'd fall off ...

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