Walking is certainly one of the easiest exercises one can do—or at least it seems like it—to stay healthy. Although it is something many of us would love to or aspire to, it often evades us. I was the same way. Although I have loved walking since my childhood, excuses, procrastination, doubts, and sometimes work schedules stopped me.

The Vicious Cycle of Excuses:

Morning: “I feel very sleepy. It is already very late; let me go for a walk tonight. I’m going for a walk tonight for sure.”

Night: “I feel very tired. Let me wake up early and go for a walk in the morning.”

Today: “I have a lot of work to do. Let me start tomorrow without fail.”

Tomorrow: “I really want to go for a walk, but it is very cold outside. I might fall ill.”

Do these sentences seem relatable? It is certainly not easy sometimes to take time out for a walk or exercise from a busy schedule, especially if you are working. I work with Inspiration Unlimited [iuemag.com] and manage operations and affiliate partnerships. This was me until the day I actually started going for a walk five months ago in mid-July 2024.

The result? I got so deeply involved and passionate about walking that I ended up completing the milestone of a million steps in a matter of just 120 days.

Here is the screenshot of this milestone achievement:

Purpose of This Article

I’m not here to brag about my achievements in this piece. Instead I’m here to share my experience of this journey to be able to emphasize that the fact that If I can do it, YOU TOO CAN!

I’m no marathoner, fitness freak with muscles, martial artist, or a sportsperson. I haven’t played much sports my entire life (until here…wink!). I am an average person who leads a normal life, spending 75% of my Life at work, but with a love for walking.

Why Did I Start?

“Well, I started walking when I was a baby!” I know, I know, it’s a PJ (poor joke)! No tomatoes, please!

On a serious note, although I have always loved walking, I had all the excuses that led to procrastination all these years. But we all have moments in our lives when we grow past these excuses and set our intent on achieving something. That moment came for me in July 2024.

I set a strong intent on getting healthy and becoming more flexible. You can imagine how rigid the body of someone who has otherwise never played much sports or worked out in 34 years (33 if we count from the day when I actually started walking—(another PJ!)) must have become.

How Did I Start?

We all need some assistance or something to motivate us. The sense of achievement is most important at the start. You may have fitness trackers, but I found an app called StepSetGo (SSG). When we step out of our comfort zone to do something beyond our normal routine, milestones can and do motivate us.

Setting personal milestones and gearing up towards achieving them is one thing, but it is always easier said than done. What if there were some set milestones already for the journey? It does become easier to know what you need to work towards. Isn’t it?

That’s what I got from SSG. They have milestones called ‘Achievements’ for every step of our walking journey—starting from 10K lifetime steps to 10 million steps and many other types of milestones that motivate a user. (No marketing intended—just personal experience!)

Have I Walked So Much Before?

Not gonna lie and say “I’ve never walked much in the past”. Ofcourse I have!

Last year, there was a time of about 15–20 days, during which I started walking; and sometimes even walked 25K steps in a day. But, that didn’t last longer than 20 days; and besides, the 25K steps/day milestone, was only achieved once.

I usually have taken a walk for about 40-45 minutes almost every day (approximately 7K–8K steps/day), to and from my office until a few months ago, as that would mostly be the only walk I could take during the day then. To keep my body moving, has always been a priority in some sense for me. But other than these walks, not much, that could ever account to achieving a milestone like I have recently.

How Did I Do It? What Has This Journey Taught Me?

Starting Small

Did I have the milestone of walking 1 million steps at the onset? Absolutely NOT! If I had taken such a huge target, I would have probably never started. I started small. In fact, I started with a modest 10K steps/day and tried to achieve that every single day.

Hence, I reached the milestone of 100K steps in just about 11 days:

Building Consistency

“Rome was not built in a day.” Consistency is the path to success. I tried my best to be as consistent as possible in achieving this goal of 10K steps/day.

Did I face hurdles? Yes! But I walked extra miles (quite literally) to achieve the daily goal.

From going to the park midday, walking at midnight, walking to meetings, and going on errands by foot—I did it all.

I then achieved the 250K steps milestone in about 28 days:

And then 500K steps came by in 48 days. It was only after this point that I could even dream of reaching 1 million steps someday.

I Had Bad Days but Embraced Them

Were there days when I simply failed? Certainly, yes! Many actually. It’s important to accept the fact that it’s absolutely fine, if you aren’t able to achieve your goals on certain days. Don’t let those failures bog you down or create self-doubts in you.

There were several days when I was hardly able to walk a couple of thousand steps.

Used Failures to Fire Myself Up

I used the failures on those days to push myself harder during the remaining days or rather on the days that came ahead. For example, during the week starting Nov 4th upto the 10th, there were 4 days when I couldn’t walk much. Instead of letting that bog me down, I pushed myself to exceed 10K steps on the other days & sometimes up to 20K steps on a single day.

Measuring & Monitoring Progress Regularly

I monitored my step count week after week & day after day, to keep a check on my progress. Lower step counts in a particular week motivated me to push harder during the following week. Having these metrics handy certainly helped me a lot in this journey to a Million Steps.

So, the lesson: Find ways to measure your progress regularly..

I Participated in Walking Challenges

Challenges & contests give us targets to work on and add the fun element to it too. During August, I participated in a challenge to walk 300K steps in a month. That indeed fueled my walking. I grabbed every opportunity I got to take a walk and reached the finish line well within time.

That month turned out to be my highest walking month ever, helping me reach 500K steps in 48 days:

And More!

Whenever we set out to achieve something, we often end up achieveling more than we initially set out for, isn’t it?

By the time I reached the milestone of 1 million steps, I had also walked 800 km in 120 days

And I burned 50K calories in the process:

All in all

“Sport teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you to know what it feels like to win and lose—it teaches you about life,” said Billie Jean King, a former tennis player.

Although I have never played any sport until now, like I said before, this journey to a Million steps in less than 120 days, was nothing less than a sport for me. It has taught me more than I could imagine.

If you’ve always wanted to walk or have any other interest you truly wish to follow, I hope this little journey of a Million steps of mine, inspires you to make that start & get on with it. It’s totally Ok if you do not have a particular goal in mind—I didn’t have 1 million steps as my goal either, when I started—but milestones happen along the way, don’t they?

Many Best wishes for your journey and all your upcoming unexplored endeavors. I hope you find this story inspiring in some way & wish me the best for my future walks and all other pursuits!

Regards..

Kunal Jain

Operations & Affiliate Partnerships Manager @ Inspiration Unlimited [iU]