Walking 10,000 Steps a Day -- How to Find Locations for Doing It

Finding locations to help you to reach your 10K-steps/day walking goal is easier than it might first seem. You simply have to be observant and creative.

Exercise A: Log your current walking locations.

1. Log your at-home walking. Do you walk a lot between the kitchen and the family room? Write that down. Do you walk a lot in your front yard or back yard? Write that down. Do you walk in your neighborhood? Write that down.

2. Log your at-work walking. Do you walk a lot between your desk or work area and a restroom? Write that down. Do you walk a long way to and from your lunchtime dining area? Write that down. Do you walk to and from meeting rooms? Write that down.

3. Log your other walking. This refers to any walking that you do far away from home but not at work. Do you walk up and down a football-field sideline? Write that down. Do you walk through a park for fun? Write that down. Do you walk between the parking lot and the cinema? Write that down.

Exercise B: Take notes about where you see others walking.

1. Keep a notepad in your car. Do you see people walking to the bus stop? Write that down. Do you see people walking along a city sidewalk? Write that down. Do you see people walking their dogs? Write that down.

2. Keep a notepad at work. Do you see people walking up and down stairs? Write that down. Do you see people walking from one desk to another? Write that down. Do you see people walking up and down halls during lunchtime or their breaks? Write that down.

3. Take a notepad with you wherever you shop. Watch other shoppers. Where are they walking? Up and down the grocery-store aisles? Write that down. Outside store windows? Write that down. While waiting for a spouse to buy something? Write that down. To and from the parking lot? Write that down.

Exercise C: Brainstorm where you want to walk next.

1. Convert your logs and notepads into a list of everywhere that you or people you have observed are walking. Which locations are the ones where you do not do any walking today ... but could? Rank the locations in that shorter list.

2. Dream about places that you would like to visit but never have -- in your neighborhood, in your city or town, in your state, in your country, or anywhere else in the world. For example, do you want to walk part of the Great Wall of China? Write down all these locations, too.

3. Combine your observations short-list with your dream list to create a master list of locations where you can walk today, tomorrow, next month, or next year. Post that master list where you will see it and be inspired every day toward your 10K-steps/day goal.

There you have it: three exercises for finding locations to walk 10K steps/day! Once you have these baseline observations, you will know where you can walk such that you will meet your daily goal, no matter where you are.