Category: Brian’s Journey

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The Power of Small Steps: How Breaking Down Goals Leads to Big Wins

One lesson I continually learn in my journey of habit formation is the power of small, consistent goals. Achieving startling results can sometimes require herculean efforts. For example, last year, I ran over 1,000 miles. It might sound like a lot, if I only intended to run it in a month. Instead, I broke it down into smaller, more manageable distances. This approach allowed me to hit that considerable number over time.

I’m naturally inclined to try and accomplish goals in one giant leap, but this often leads to failure. For instance, I recently committed to better caring for our front yard. My first task was to weed the planter areas. Initially, it seemed like an overwhelming job. However, by dedicating just 20 minutes a day to it, I found it more manageable. I expect to finish the tendering of our front yard sometime this week without being subjected to a back-breaking, all-day endeavor.

If you need help to achieve your goals or even to get started, consider breaking them down into smaller tasks. The temptation to tackle everything all at once is strong but only sometimes effective. Intellectually, I understand this. Yet, the urge to “do it all now” still pops up.

When setting my goals, I make it a point to remind myself to break them into smaller tasks. I plan to work on these smaller tasks over a more extended period. Starting earlier and extending the timeline can be a safer and more effective approach for various activities.

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Goal-Setting 101: How to Use Rules and Triggers for Habit Building

t helps to determine rules and triggers to develop and maintain your habits. As with my running goal last year, I knew that sometimes events would conspire against me being able to meet my 35k per week goal. As such, I needed to determine some rules to play by. I had to ensure that my rules supported my plan rather than excuses I could fall back on. The first step I took in crafting my rules was to investigate what my goal was.

 

My goal was to run 35k per week, but I wanted to regain mobility endurance and support my health. Recognizing these as my real goals helped me create appropriate rules. For example, one of my rules is that I will not run if there is snow/ice on the ground. This rule would conflict if my true goal were the 35k per week. However, since my true goal is mobility, doing something that has a substantial risk of decreasing my mobility via a broken ankle from slipping/falling is counterproductive.

I tested all of my potential rules against my goals in this manner. Setting up rules like this is crucial because otherwise, I would be relying on Ad Hoc decisions, which are too easily influenced by current emotions.

As much as I wanted to achieve my actual goals and that I became focused on reaching 35k each week, there were plenty of days when I dreaded running, and it took great effort to force myself to go out. If I had not established a strict running schedule on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, I probably would have made excuses and failed to achieve my goal by missing too many days.

The other half of this equation is setting up triggers. Triggers are events or times that prompt a response or when to apply a rule. Every run day, my trigger for getting ready for running is after I use the bathroom. Every morning, after breakfast and coffee, I’ll eventually have to use the toilet; I use this as my trigger for running. After I use the bathroom, I change into my running clothes instead of returning to my computer. My no running on snow ice rule is triggered by looking out the front door when I get my second cup of coffee. If there’s snow/ice visible on my ground now, I cancel my run.

So when trying to develop your habits, First figure out your actual goals and test your habit ideas against your real goals. Second, build your ruleset so you’re not relying on feelings or motivation, and be strict with your rules. Don’t give yourself any excuses for ignoring your rules. You might need to create a new rule if you can’t do the desired behavior. Just ensure you test this new rule against your goals. Finally, make your triggers. Use alarms on your phone if you can’t find commonly occurring events.

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Running Through Rehab: How I Built a Consistent Running Habit

I’ve been running regularly for the past five years. I began my current running program when we still lived in Portland, Oregon. My wife and I had been walking nearly every day since I’d been released from rehabilitation, and I felt I had progressed enough to try running.

A few years before this, I had attempted to get into running but hadn’t committed to it, but I had learned about the couch to 5k running program (c25k). I had enough commitment to maintain my running schedule and found an app for my phone, which allowed me to import some of my music into this program.

 

Couch to 5K (C25K) Program

C25k fit me quite well; it starts relatively slow with short-run segments with walking segments between them. Each week, the run segments get longer and the walk segments shorter. After five weeks, I ran for the entire time, about 5 kilometers. I went through this program several times, and each time, it got easier, and I got faster.

 

Zombies, Run!

Then my wife heard about a running app that was gaining popularity at the time, Zombies, Run! It’s an app that uses game concepts to motivate running. It’s set during a zombie apocalypse, and you play a character helping a small settlement of survivors by running. During each mission, you collect or deliver items while randomly acquiring materials to build your settlement. I found it quite interesting, and motivated me to run more and more to find out what happens next in the story.

After running 5k three times per week for a year, I was ready to push myself more, and I found an extension program by the same group that made the c25k program, which smoothed the transition from 5k to 10k using the same concepts of increasing the duration of run segments and shortening the walk segments. Again, this worked well for me, and I was proud of being able to run 10k. I won’t say it was easy, but it was possible.

 

An Added Challenge

I kept with this as we moved to Nashville, Tennessee; however, this move added a challenge to overcome. The average climate in Nashville is quite different from Portland. It is quite a bit warmer in Nashville, and I needed to keep myself hydrated while running. Luckily, my habit of counting steps helped me figure out a schedule for sipping my sports drink.

I use the schedule every 400 steps; I pause for a few seconds and drink. Conveniently, I discovered that 400 steps is roughly half a kilometer for me.

Now equipped with a rehydration schedule, I ran 5k nearly every day. It took me a while to get used to the new environment. After running 5k at least three times per week for a year, I aimed to push myself further by increasing my run distance by a kilometer each month. During the first month, I ran three 5k per week, then gradually increased to three 6k per week, and eventually, I was able to run 10k three times per week. My goal was to improve my endurance and speed.

 

1 Month: 3 x 5K (to get used to running)

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End: 3 x 10K

 

While I was faster at running 5k, I wasn’t as fast as I wanted to be, although I doubt I ever will be; however, as long as I’m getting better, I should be content with my progress. I repeated this sequence a couple more times and then set a new goal: I will run 35k per week for a year.

3x10k and 1x5k. Some weeks were harder than others, and I had to figure out how to balance my running schedule with other activities and impediments like weather.

 

I had to set up rules so every solution to a complication wasn’t ad hoc but part of a comprehensive plan. First, I made a goal statement: to run 35k per week. Then, I made a list of likely impediments, which included inclement weather and other obligations like birthday parties or doctor’s appointments. Scheduling appointments was easy since I set running days separate from appointment days.

 

The other complications were more brutal to balance, but I found that if I couldn’t juggle the days to fit my schedule, I could spread my anticipated missed days running over the other days so, instead of 3x10k + 1x5k, I could run 2x12k and an 11k. I was happy as long as I accomplished my primary goal of 35k.

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From One Step to 10K: How Small Choices Built a Resilient New Me After a Stroke

People can be characterized by the sum of their habits.

Everybody has habits, but not everybody chooses their habits. Every choice you make is a step toward forming a life-long habit. As such, making choices that lead you toward your desired destination is critical. So, the first step toward developing good habits is deciding where to end up.

 

After my stroke, I wanted to regain my lost mobility and lessen the burden on my wife I had become. The first step along this journey was to be able to take more than one step between resting. My wife helped immensely with this, and we went on daily walks around our Portland neighborhood.

At first, it was challenging as I had to concentrate on moving my legs. One of the things I lost from the stroke was unconscious control of movements. Walking required concentrating on activating the right leg muscles in the proper order, and doing this for more than a couple of steps resulted in neuro-fatigue, a term I learned during physical therapy.

Neuro-fatigue might be something you’ve experienced if you’ve ever spent a long late night studying for an exam the next day and felt exhausted despite being largely sedentary. This used to happen to me just from walking due to the concentration and mental effort this once simple act demanded. Counting my steps helped me maintain my focus on walking, and it also gave me a way to track improvement.

Initially, I would need to sit down and rest every 50 steps. Still, eventually, I was able to last the hour-long walk until we got home again. Now, I can run 10 kilometers without having to sit down midway. In my next posting, I’ll provide a more detailed description of how I built up to a 10k run.

 

If you want to achieve something, you’ve already taken the first step toward accomplishing it, but you need to take the next step. As I see it, the next step is to subdivide your path into small portions. In my walking, this was easy to determine; I just needed to try and put one more effort than I did on the previous walk. If I failed, I had to try that number repeatedly if necessary. Eventually, I would succeed, and I could increase my goal again.

Eventually, I discovered that what was once all I could manage was now merely halfway to my current goal. If you’re stumbling and trying to take your next step, try making your step smaller.

 

Remember the fable about the tortoise and the hare: slow and steady will win many races.

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Unbroken Spirit: Conquering Life Post-Stroke

Welcome, dear reader, to the birth of my blog. I am Brian Lempke, a 44-year-old American who, after discussing with my wife, has decided to share some of the techniques I’ve had to develop to improve myself. 2015, I suffered a right cerebral hemorrhagic brain stroke, nearly killing me. Luckily for my survival, my wife found me and called for an ambulance before I expired. Also, luckily, we happened to be living in Portland, Oregon, at the time, home to a very fine neurological hospital department at OHSU.

After my initial recovery, whereby I regained consciousness and formed some foggy memories of existence, I was transferred to the first of two stints in a rehabilitation unit where I was constantly assessed and underwent physical, occupational, and speech rehabilitation. Eventually, I recovered enough that I was transferred to another rehabilitation institute. This one had a more beneficial patient ratio, and I have much fonder memories of it. My days I was blurred through my daily life being coordinated by medical professionals who constantly assessed my cognitive and physical capabilities. At this time, I could barely stand, let alone walk. I was taught how to use a walker and given strength-rebuilding training.

Eventually, I was released to the care of my wife at home and began my true recovery process, which will be the focus of my blog. I used what I learned from the rehabilitation facilities, other doctors, nurses, and my errors. While there will likely always be after-effects of my stroke and some things that I cannot completely heal, in some ways, with my wife’s support, I’ve surpassed my pre-stroke self.

In this blog, I will detail the goals I set, the obstacles I encountered, and how I have worked to overcome them. If I could achieve the recovery I’ve enjoyed, others can do it and perhaps even better than I managed in my stumbling. Immediately after my stroke, my wife searched online for hints about what she could expect and how to help me. She couldn’t find much, so this blog may help others search as my wife did. I hope that some of my techniques can be used by those who haven’t suffered a stroke and won’t have as far to climb. I hope that my blog can provide you with some tricks and tips to help you along your self-improvement journey and provide some entertainment.