You're Really Not Bored With Walking

0:00If you're bored with walking, it's probably not the walking that you're bored with. Hi, I'm Dave. Welcome to Walking His Fitness, a daily 10-minute podcast designed to provide you with a little added motivation to get out the door, take the walk, and even more importantly, to build a life-changing walking habit. Today's 10-minute walk starts right after this. So I've now had three months in a row where we've stayed within budget thanks to Monarch. And you know what? One of the biggest threats to busting the budget is for me. It's actually extra cash, like a tax refund, because that can cause me to get sloppy with spending. Monarch is now keeping that from happening. Simplify your finances with Monarch. Monarch is the all-in-one personal finance tool designed to make your life easier, brings your entire financial life budgeting, accounts and investments, net worth, and future planning together in one dashboard on your phone or laptop.

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3:06I wouldn't want to walk and fog every morning. With the occasional foggy morning, there's something magical about it, and so I'm enjoying that. I am amused when I hear people talk about, say, refer to walking as boring. This has never been my experience. I have never been walking and find the experience boring. Now, truthfully, there have been times when I've been walking, taking a really long walk, and I'm ready for it to be over, but that's probably a combination of tired, other things to do, maybe actually, if I'm being self-analytical, maybe towards the end of a really long walk, there's a little bit of what you could describe as boredom.

4:10Which to creep in. So let me revise and amend my statement. I have never found the early stages of a walk, boring. And yet, there are more than a few people who say, this activity, this thing that you and I are doing right now, is boring. I don't believe that's really what they're experiencing, and I know there's a bit of arrogance in that. I think what is actually happening, it's not the walking that's boring. It's the routine. There are some really great advantages to doing the same thing, the same way, day after day. When you have a routine that is locked down, you don't have to figure it out every day.

5:15And sometimes, having to figure things out, how far am I going to go? When am I going to walk? That friction of having to make those decisions can be demotivating. So when it's already locked in place, when the routine is already established and you don't have to figure it out, there's actually a lot of freedom in that. But over time, for some, maybe even many, the routine can start to feel boring. Without being intentional, without over analyzing what I've been doing, I've noticed over the last handful of years, now that my mornings are mine, they're free, I no longer have to go into the radio station to do a morning radio show, which I love doing, but that kind of impacted my mornings and my routine. And now that my mornings are free and mine, I have found that the routine, the morning

6:16routine of which walking as a big part has changed, probably a handful of times. And it has never took my best recollection, it has never been, oh, I'm bored with this, I need to try something different, it just happens. I'm doing it the same way and then I make a change, which leads to another change. And before you know it, the walk that had been 45 minutes at this particular time, going this particular route, is now a 30 minute walk on my treadmill in my home office watching YouTube, streamers walking through Manhattan, that was not a conscious decision, but I found a routine that for now feels more interesting and fresher, and it's something that I look forward to in really kind of an exciting way. And at some point, that will probably change, speaking of change, so we've got the

7:20time change. And I think this is an opportunity, a natural opportunity, a golden opportunity to change up your routine, if you've been feeling bored, it's not the walking, it's not the act of walking, it's not the activity of walking, it's the routine. If you walk in the morning, early in the morning, if you walk early evening without having to do anything different, your walk is going to feel different. I walk this morning, it feels different, it looks different, and I was excited to get out and take the walk, I'm really excited for the walk that Evan and I will take probably later this evening after dinner. We've been talking about that one for a while, most of this past week, when we've been out, it's like okay, this time next week, this is what it's going to look like, this is what it's going to feel like, and getting excited about that.

8:20And tonight we actually get to experience that, and I'm really looking forward to it. So without doing anything different, the time change changes things up, and can make that routine feel different, feel fresh, maybe even exciting, but maybe the time change really isn't going to impact you in that way, because your walk isn't impacted by sunrise and sunset. There are other things you can do to change up the routine, you can listen to different podcasts, maybe I'm boring you. Try a different podcast, or maybe you need to listen to more of this podcast, try an audio book, try music, try a quiet walk, in fact tomorrow I'm going to talk about taking a quiet walk and how right now that's one of my favorite walks, and it's part of changing the routine.

9:27For a long time my routine has been heading out and listening to podcasts, not the same podcast, but listening to podcasts, wasn't the walking that was boring, it was the routine that was losing its edge, losing its freshness, and now taking quiet walks, feels fresh, feels new, it has changed that routine. Maybe it's who you walk with, if you've been doing solo walks, maybe it's time to take walks with someone else, or vice versa, you've typically got a walking partner, and you feel safe going for a walk alone, try that, of course if you have the opportunity to change the route, to change where you walk, that can change the routine, in fact make a game out of it, this coming week I'm going to walk a different route a different way

10:27every day, and maybe that's easy for you to do, maybe it's not, maybe it's not so obvious, which requires a little bit of planning, a little bit of figuring things out, that alone can change the routine. If you started walking as a fitness activity around the first of the year, maybe at some point last year, and you're starting to feel like it's lost its edge, and you might even be using that word boring, starting to get boring, I will contend that it's not the walking, the active walking that is boring, it's the routine that's starting to lose its freshness, its edge, and maybe just adjusting that, maybe simply the time change, adjusts it for you, and it will feel fresh with the way things are looking, differently as you head out in the morning or in the evening. Maybe this podcast is what you need, you're checking it out, what is this walking as fitness

11:30all about every day, brand new episode, or record it while I'm out walking as I am now, live here in Murdle Beach, South Carolina, and if you like the idea of creating this habit, of listening to this podcast, of taking a walk together with me, and you're listening through Apple Podcast, tap follow every episode, it'll be waiting for you, take some of friction away, and you'll also get a notification, hey, there's a brand new episode, and that notification can serve both as an invitation, which can be a little motivating, let's take the walk, it can also be a reminder, which for me as I'm establishing new habits is really the biggest challenge I face, remembering to do the thing, and that notification can serve as a reminder, hey, let's take a walk, let's do this together, let's build a life changing walking habit. Thanks for listening, I appreciate you, appreciate your time, I am back tomorrow, that's my commitment, a new walk, new episode every day, in the meantime,

12:31I hope you have an amazing day. Support is available 24-7 with verbo care, we're here day or night, ready whenever you need help, because a great trip starts with the right support.