Sometimes It Just Takes a Little Prodding 

I used to run. There was a point in time at a previous job, where I wasn’t super happy, nor particularly engaged, and I could get out of the office at a normal time and go running. Distance running has never been my thing, but I would run 4–5 miles a day, 5 or 6 days a week.

Over the past few years, I’ve fallen into some bad habits. I’d go through phases where I’d run a few miles a couple of times a week; then it was running a few miles at the gym a couple of times a week. Until the last month, it was run every couple of weeks and pretend that the exercise I get from softball and basketball is enough to get by.

Periodically, I’d use something like Runkeeper to try to motivate me. “Hey, you should go running and try to do better than you did yesterday.” The downside—I’d often get frustrated because going from running 4–5 miles a day to 2–3 miles every couple of weeks was a big step back and seeing that displayed to me when I started the app was demoralizing, not encouraging.

I went through these cycles for a couple of years.

Then I got my new iPhone 5S with its M7 chip.

And, honestly, this isn’t any sort of amazing revelation, but just using an app like Pedometer++[1] is enough to help get me up and moving a bit more. It just measures your steps each day, and you can set a goal. It’s a Fitbit[2], but comes in a device that’s already in my pocket 90% of the day. It’s just enough prodding. I open the app, see I only have a few thousand steps, and I’ll go for a run (I went as far as to buy a thingy to carry my phone while I run). Or I’ll walk the long way to grab dinner.

It’s not much. But I’m sitting here on 9,300 steps for the day (which doesn’t count the hour and a half of basketball, or hour plus of softball – so I’m really probably closer to 20,000 steps), and I’ll probably go walk around a bit to get over 10,000 steps for the day.

It’s so incredibly stupid that I am motivated by a little number, and not by simply getting in better shape or generally being healthier.

But, it turns out, that seeing the little values go to 10,000 is just enough prodding.