Walking 10,000 steps in one day is not easy. For starters, walking 10,000 steps is about five miles.

Even if you do this every day and it no longer feels hard, that doesn't mean it's easy.

Reaching 10,000 steps in one day requires about an hour and 40 minutes of walking.

That doesn't happen by accident.

The average person walks less than half that amount each day.

Sadly, most of us feel were moving far more than we actually are.

Before the pandemic, a friend of mine spent the day in New York City.

He said they walked everywhere.

He was sure he set all kinds of new one-day step records. He finished the day with 15,000 steps. He was disappointed, but also had a newfound respect on how difficult it is to reach

10,000 every day. If you already hit 10K a day, enjoy this blog as a reminder that you are doing a hard thing.

If you want to reach 10K a day, I'm going to give you some practical advice about how to hit that number and stay there consistently.

Walking 10,000 steps isn't easy because fitness isn't easy.

That's why so many of us bail on exercise.

It's not fun and it's not easy. Brushing your teeth isn't fun. Imagine if it also was not easy.

We humans generally don't choose things that are both not fun and not easy. This is why my friend felt like he got way more steps in New York City than he actually did. He walked a lot more than usual,

and he pushed past his fitness level doing it. By contrast, someone who walks 20,000 steps a day

probably would not have felt the same exertion walking

just 15,000. It takes time to build your fitness level where you can reach and maintain 10,000

steps a day. And because fitness is dynamic and not static, if you back off for a while,

those 10,000 steps are going to feel

hard again. It's not easy to find one hour and 40 minutes every day to walk. Life is busy,

and that chunk of time requires a commitment. It's not that we can't find 100 minutes a day

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